US-Estonian Relations Unaffected by Wikileaks Documents, Say Officials
Wikileaks - the online whistleblower organization that is stirring diplomatic chaos internationally - threatens to unveil a quarter-million secret documents, including 610 from Estonia, according the German magazine, Der Spiegel.
Only a few documents have been revealed so far, none related to Estonia, but diplomats are already taking measures for damage control, as the US Ambassador to Estonia revealed an article titled "Estonia and the US: Rock-Solid Allies" in the opinion section of the country's largest daily newspaper Postimees today.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Urmas Paet said he does not know the substance of the clandestine documents pertaining to Estonia that Wikileaks plans to reveal.
Paet said he was warned by the US Embassy ahead of time. "Last week, US Embassy representatives in Tallinn turned to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and informed us that such a leak is coming," he told ETV. "Allegedly they did not know the extent of the documents that Wikileaks acquired."
Eerik-Niiles Kross - a former high-level security analyst who advised the Georgian government - believes the Wikileaks revelations could endanger US relations with its allies. "Last time, Wikileaks revealed military information about Afghanistan, which in some sense was a direct threat to many lives. This time, they will reveal insider diplomatic information, which will not necessarily endager anybody, but it definitely threatens relations between the US and its allies," said Kross. "It's unfortunate that it happened because it endangers honest dialogue in the future within inner circles and with allies because everyone fears that it might somehow reach the newspapers."
Nevertheless, Kross believes the documents will reveal nothing scandalous about Estonia. "It is possible that there are judgements about the profile of some Estonian politician or diplomat, but those are only the personal matters of a few. There is nothing there that would harm bilateral relations."