Kaljulaid, who is a member of the Riigikogu National Defense Committee, said he made his decision in August, and is going back to work in the private sector.

"Returning to the private sector, I can also draw on the knowledge and experience in management and business development that I had before entering politics, when I worked as an entrepreneur in marketing and communications," Kaljulaid said.

"For the past eight years, I have been involved in foreign and security policy. I have worked on the principle that maintaining very good relations with all our allies and partners is vitally important for Estonia. I cannot count how many meetings I have had during this time with politicians, diplomats and entrepreneurs from Europe, the U.S., the Gulf states and Asian countries," he went on.

Kaljulaid added he has not yet made a final decision on exactly what he will do next. "I am considering various options and thinking things through carefully. I will make a decision in the coming months."

While he said he does not rule out ever returning to politics, he is certain that he will not consider doing so in the immediate next years, nor likely beyond that either, adding he is "serious" about working in the private sector again.

Kaljulaid also stated former Foreign Ministry Secretary General Jonatan Vseviov's decision to join SDE did not play a role in his move either.

"Jonatan Vseviov's decision to join obviously could not have influenced my decision in any way, as it happened long after I had made my decision. However, I welcome this step. Jonatan Vseviov brings very strong knowledge of foreign and security policy to the party. Alongside that, I would also consider it very important that he is coming from the position of secretary general of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," Kaljulaid on this.

He expressed a hope that the party's current upward trend in the polls will continue and that it will play a highly significant role both in the next Riigikogu composition and in the next administration.

He noted that the example of where " neoliberal right-wing economic policies lead" from some of the Western European countries, adding "what happens to society when inequality grows rapidly and people feel that the state does not need them and that they do not need the state either has had a "destabilixing" effect in those lands, and one which Estonia and its political parties could pay heed to.

He said he would continue to vote for SDE and encouraged all voters to do so too.

Kaljulaid 44, had been a Center Party member for the best part of 20 years before joining SDE in 2019. He won a Riigikogu seat in his own right with Center at the 2019 elections, but quit in protest of the party's coalition talks which involved the Conservative People's Party of Estonia (EKRE). He was re-elected at the 2023 elections with SDE. In the current Riigikogu he sat on the Security Authorities Surveillance Select Committee, as well as the defense committee, and chaired the Estonian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly. His 20,643 votes attained at the 2019 European Parliament elections was the seventh best result.

Riigikogu election polling day is March 7, 2027.

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