You're reading: New Estonian foreign minister speaks for developing relations with Russia

TALLINN - The new Estonian foreign minister, Jurgen Ligi, said that if need be, he is ready to deal with his Russian colleague Sergei Lavrov.

“Estonia has always stood for developing relations with Russia […]. It is necessary to maintain as good relations as possible with Russia,” the ERR television and radio broadcasting portal quoted Ligi as saying.

“Due to the sanctions our relations are frozen at the highest level, therefore we have a fairly small field for dialogue,” he said.

However, “an aspiration to it is absent, sooner on the Russian side,” he said. “Probably, we are too small and insignificant and Russia has enough of those with whom to communicate without noticing us, but we in any case should regard Russia seriously as a neighbor,” Ligi said.

In his opinion, Estonia should not fear an attack from Russia. He said Estonia has boosted its defense spending to a level “when it is very difficult not to offer us collective protection” and Russia “realizes all that.”

“In the world today aggression is unrewarding,” Ligi said. In his opinion, Moscow does not have such a plan because it realizes that it is senseless.

Ligi was appointed Foreign Minister on Sept. 12 after the resignation of his predecessor Marina Kaljurand, who announced her intentions of running for the presidency.

The Russian embassy in Tallinn announced that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov congratulated Ligi on his appointment and voiced hope “for interaction in the interests of shaping a constructive agenda of Russian-Estonian relations.”