Estonian president starts working visit to Australia
President Kersti Kaljulaid on Saturday embarked on a working visit to Australia and Oceania to garner support for Estonia's candidacy for a non-permanent seat on the United Nations Security Council for 2020-2021, the president's office said.
Estonia is competing for a non-permanent seat on the UN Security Council for 2020-2021. Romania is also vying for the seat. The vote in the General Assembly is set for June 2019, with all 193 members of the world organisation entitled to vote.
Kaljulaid's foreign affairs adviser, Lauri Kuusing, said that when running for a seat on the UN Security Council, it is important to understand what is happening in the different regions of the world and deepen relations with areas with which contacts have been scarce so far.
'The voting of members of the Security Council is unique in the way that every state, regardless of size and location, has one vote,' Kuusing said.
During her working visit to Australia, Kaljulaid is scheduled to meet with Governor-General of Australia General Sir Peter John Cosgrove. She will also meet with the local Estonian community and participate in the opening ceremony of the Invictus Games, in which injured veterans of the Estonian Defence Forces are competing as well.
On 22 October the president will start her working visit to Vanuatu, where she is to meet with President Tallis Obed Moses, and Fiji, where she is scheduled to meet with Fiji's President Jioji Konousi Konrote.
On 25 October Kaljulaid will continue on to New Zealand, where she will meet Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and Governor-General Dame Patsy Reddy as well as with diplomatic representatives of the island states of the Pacific Ocean.
From there, Kaljulaid will head to the United States, where she will appear at City Lab, a summit for leaders of the world's cities, to be held in Detroit.
The president's working visit will end on 2 November in New York, where she is also meetin with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres.
Editor: Dario Cavegn