"In the context of the cuts, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs will see a reduction of €1.46 million in its allocations for development cooperation and humanitarian aid, and in project launches. In addition, projects for Ukraine, for which the government allocated €14 million last year, will be cut by 10 percent, or €1.4 million," said Mihkel Tamm, director general of the ministry's communication department

Projects already underway will not be affected, but the number of future projects will be reduced, he stressed.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Margus Tsahkna (Eesti 200) said in a written comment that development cooperation and humanitarian aid are an integral part of Estonia's foreign policy and a tool.

"Inevitably, cuts bring decisions, none of which are easy. The state of public finances is difficult, and as a result we are able to do less development cooperation than we had hoped. But even when difficult circumstances make it necessary to make cuts, we will finish what we start. I am convinced that we can continue to make a necessary and meaningful contribution, including to help Ukraine, by managing wisely," he said.

Speaking about the money allocated to the European Peace Facility, which is currently being blocked by Hungary, Tamm said €6 million has been budgeted for this.

"However, this amount may change during the year depending on needs," he said.

Tsahkna told ERR on Wednesday that closing embassies is a last resort, but also defended a previous decision to shut two U.S. consulates.

"As a foreign minister, I would say that I do not want to close any embassies, because it does not have a big economic effect, however, it has a political effect on a particular country where we started to close an embassy, for example, or even a region. In the past, the Estonian state has closed embassies in different countries and then reopened them later. So our network of embassies is small anyway," Tsahkna said on Wednesday.

He said Estonia still has an embassy in Washington and a "strong presence" in New York at the United Nations. The minister said there have been no reductions in the number of services offered by closing the New York or San Fransico consulates.

Tamm clarified on Thursday that there are no plans to close consulates or representative offices.

The government wants to cut €183 million from the budget to try and reduce the deficit. Of this, €115 million are savings measures while €68 million comes from revenue measures.

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