Estonian Americans Must Stand Strong for Estonian Security Interests with Incoming Administration

(December 2024) As the collective voice of Estonian Americans, this is an important moment for EANC to continue speaking up and advocating for important issues, including core civic values, security partnerships, and a free, independent Europe. If we as a community don’t support Estonia and the Baltics, who will? Our combined voices are even more impactful than any of us individually, so we must continue cultivating relationships with like-minded others and building as broad of a coalition as possible.

Individually, it is equally important that we — as Estonian Americans — exercise the influence that we have as local constituents. Each of us can connect with our new and continuing congressional representatives, introduce ourselves and explain what we value, and solicit their ongoing attentiveness and support.

As the new Administration takes over, Estonian Americans and their allies will be looking for:

• A Ukraine strategy that does not ratify Russia’s aggression through ceding territory and/or cutting off Ukraine’s future options to join the EU and NATO; a strategy that respects Ukrainian sovereignty and self-determination, including the nation’s right to defend itself.
• Recognition that Baltic/Transatlantic security is also US security; continued support for a strong NATO alliance, within which the US is a dependable partner.
• A cohesive foreign policy strategy which recognizes today’s turbulent environment and the interconnectedness of global threats.

If there is new opportunity in this change of administration, we need to find it. Estonian Americans have an important role to play while supporting calls for a stronger, more self-reliant Europe and a solid NATO Alliance, reminding the world of Russia’s long history of deceit and failure to honor agreements – these warnings are based on our own past experiences and caution against quick solutions.

At the same time, we continue to remember and recount our own turbulent history and refugee legacy. Some of us still have memories of living under an illegal regime, while all of us worry for friends and family in Estonia today who are living close to a constantly expanding war zone.

Along the way, we cannot abandon our conviction that a free and secure Europe is just as important to the United States as it is for the Baltics – and that for lasting peace in Europe, we will need a just and sustainable peace in Ukraine.

EANC looks forward to continuing our seven decades of important work in advocating for the interests of Estonian Americans. Now as before, this work is nonpartisan and has had champions on both sides of the political aisle. However, the situations that are driving our work forward have never been more urgent than in today’s threat-filled, turbulent environment.

To provide for an exchange of views and more information on these topics, we invite you to EANC’s next virtual forum, “Going Forward – Protecting Estonian and Baltic Security Interests” scheduled for January 2025. EANC will host Estonian officials for a discussion on the current security situation, Estonia’s perspective, and what Estonian Americans can do to effectively speak up for Estonia, Ukraine, and Baltic security interests.

Keep up with principal issues and dates via estosite.org, the EANC Facebook page, and our newsletter “Teataja.” (Sign up here for our newsletter and to receive an emailed event reminder).