Estonia's foreign ministry classifies Independence Day congratulations
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has classified for five years most of the congratulatory messages sent to the president by foreign leaders on the anniversary of the Republic of Estonia.
According to the document register of the Office of the President, several letters from foreign leaders marking the anniversary of the Republic of Estonia have reached the president, most of them labeled for official use (AK) until 2031.
Among others, letters marked AK were sent to the President's Office by U.S. President Donald Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Chinese President Xi Jinping. Letters were also sent by King Charles III of England and Pope Leo XIV, as well as many other world leaders and Estonia's allies.
Epp-Mare Kukemelk, spokesperson for the President's Office, told ERR that most of the congratulatory messages arrived at the office via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and if the ministry forwarded the greetings with an AK designation, the office cannot remove that designation.
"An AK label is applied to a letter when congratulatory messages contain more information than just congratulations. If it is only a congratulatory message, then all such greetings in the document register should be public," Kukemelk said.
Kerstin Meresma, media adviser at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, likewise said that letters marked AK, in addition to congratulations on the 108th anniversary of the Republic of Estonia, also contain other messages that are important in foreign relations.
"The Ministry of Foreign Affairs does not disclose documents from other countries in its document register because other countries have set confidentiality periods for their documents ranging from 25 to 80 years and we must take those into account in reciprocal communication," Meresma said.
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Editor: Aleksander Krjukov, Marcus Turovski
