KAllas participated this Tuesday night at the Political Defense Summit in Washington and, when asked if she would like to be appointed to the most important position in NATO, she answered “yes”, the Associated Press (AP) reported today.
The 46-year-old lawyer and politician became the first woman to head the Estonian Government in January 2021, a position she still holds after renewing her mandate in the last elections in March.
Estonia’s ruling Reform Party did not immediately react to the policy stance, although a spokesman assured today that Kallas will seek to secure a new mandate at the head of the center-right party at the congress in the capital, Tallinn, on Saturday. .
The current leader of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg, is expected to step down as secretary general in October 2024, after 10 years in the position.
The politician has been one of Ukraine’s most vocal supporters in Europe and a fierce critic of Russia in the European Union and NATO.
Among other things, Kaja Kallas pressed NATO to provide a more complete defense plan for the three Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania — that border Russia.
However, some Atlantic Alliance diplomats and security policy experts said that Kallas may be too aggressive in the opinion of some members of the 31-nation organization.
In Estonia, a country of 1.3 million people, his popularity peaked during the spring after his party won a landslide victory in March’s general election, where Ukraine emerged as a hot issue.
However, her popularity fell in August after reports in the Estonian media revealed that her husband remained a major shareholder in a transport company that continued to operate in Russia after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. in February 2022.
Kallas had previously called on Estonian companies to cease operations in Russia.
The government official denied knowing the details of her husband’s business activities and refused to resign, despite being urged to do so by President Alar Karis and the vast majority of Estonians, according to several polls.
Among the other main candidates for the NATO position, the outgoing Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, has also expressed his interest.
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Source: https://www.noticiasaominuto.com/mundo/2441933/primeira-ministra-da-estonia-manifesta-interesse-em-liderar-a-nato
