Foreign Minister on official visit to People's Republic of China this week
Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna (Eesti 200) is on an official visit to the People's Republic of China this week, the first trip there by an Estonian foreign minister in a decade.
Tsahkna will meet his counterpart Wang Yi while in China, November 4-5.
"The meeting will focus on bilateral and multilateral relations and Russia's war of aggression in Ukraine," the Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced Monday.
Tsahkna will also give a speech at Beijing-based think tank the Center for China and Globalization (CCG) while there.
He had previously been highly critical of a Riigikogu delegation visiting the PRC in September last year, saying this "looks very bad" and noting that there were "no free lunches, especially when it comes to China." The 10-day visit's expenses had been borne by the host nation.
Tsahkna also referenced human rights issues with regard to China. "Our allies also go to China, but there one must clearly stand up for those positions," he said.
No Eesti 200 MPs sat on the Estonia-China Riigikogu friendship group, whose members formed the six-person September 2024 delegation, at the time of the visit.
"Our party's values-based policy reflects that we did not deem it necessary for anyone to belong to that China friendship group," Tsahkna said of this at the time.
Then-foreign minister Keit Pentus-Rosimannus had visited in Beijing in January 2015, to open the Estonian Embassy building.
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Editor: Andrew Whyte
