Kaja Kallas: Estonian firebrand becomes Europe’s top diplomat

With concerns deepening about his plans to invade Ukraine, Merkel wanted to invite Putin to Europe in an effort to defuse tensions. Though it had the backing of French President Emmanuel Macron, Merkel had not reckoned on the staunch opposition of Kallas, who by then had only been Estonia's prime minister for five months. 

"A summit on what?" Kallas demanded when Merkel outlined her idea. "What is it for?" Kallas pushed back, insisting that Putin was not to be trusted, and that any invitation to him would be interpreted by the Kremlin as a sign of weakness. 

With support from other East European countries who harboured similar views, Kallas's objections forced Merkel to back down—a remarkable achievement for any politician, let alone a relative newcomer to Europe's political elite. 

One senior EU diplomat later told the Politico website that Macron could scarcely hide his disbelief at her boldness, suggesting that she might face a backlash at home for humiliating Merkel, before asking: "Will you still be prime minister tomorrow?" 

Getting promoted

If anything, Kallas's unflinching position on Putin won her admirers, both at home and within Europe, to such as extent that, on 1 December 2024, she was appointed to the prestigious position as the EU's next foreign policy chief. Macron was among the EU leaders willing to endorse her. It marked a remarkable rise.

Her supporters say her stance on Russia comes from her family's long history of confrontation with Moscow. Her great-grandfather, Eduard Alver, fought the Soviets during the country's 1918-20 War of Independence, and was imprisoned after Estonia was occupied by the Soviet Union during World War II. 

Following the Soviet Union's collapse in 1991, Kallas's father, Siim Kallas, became Estonian foreign minister in 1995, then prime minister in 2002, before being named Tallinn's first-ever European Commissioner in 2004, when Estonia joined the EU. He held the post for a decade. 

A seminal moment in her childhood came in 1988, at the age of 11, when her father took her to East Berlin (when Estonia was still under Soviet rule) to see the Brandenburg Gate, from which it was possible to view West Berlin. "Breathe in," he told her. "It's the air of freedom that comes from the other side." 

She got a degree in law from the University of Tartu in 1999 and completed postgraduate studies at the Estonian Business School in 2007. Having specialised in competition law, Kallas became drawn to politics and was elected first to the Estonian parliament in 2011, then to the European Parliament in 2014. 

In January 2021, she became the first female Prime Minister of Estonia. After the Russian invasion of Ukraine, she became a prominent supporter of the Ukrainian cause, pushing the EU to set quantifiable targets in its support for Kyiv. 

Tackling imperialism

Justifying her stance, she wrote, in a letter to members of the European Parliament prior to her nomination hearing for the EU position, that "I wanted Estonia to lead by example," adding: "Russia's imperialistic dream never died."

Kallas is now responsible for balancing the interests of the EU's 27 member states, a challenging task given the divisions that exist within the alliance, especially on the vexed issue of the Ukraine conflict. 

Even though Kallas comes from one of the EU's smaller states, she is not afraid to speak her mind when challenged by the leaders of larger European states, as she showed at the NATO summit in Washington in July when confronting Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, who is accused of having Putin sympathies. 

When he claimed it would be wrong to let Ukraine join NATO, and accused NATO of having provoked Russia into invading Ukraine because of its eastwards expansion, Kallas abandoned her scripted speech and hit back at the Hungarian, arguing forcefully that NATO's priority was to avoid wars, not provoke them. 

Since taking office, she has continued making forthright statements concerning the threat Russia poses to European security. After claims that Russia tried to influence the outcome of Romania's recent elections, Kallas revealed that she was "very worried" about Moscow's ability to use new technologies to do so in Europe.

"I see the examples from Romania, but also other parts, that the Russians have really cracked the code on how to influence elections," Kallas said, while also warning the West to guard against forcing Ukraine into making a bad deal with Russia simply to end the war. 

Working with America

US President-elect Donald Trump has said he wants the fighting in Ukraine to stop and has said he will arrange for that to happen. But Kallas warned against rushed negotiations ahead of a summit of European leaders. 

"Any push for negotiations too soon will actually be a bad deal for Ukraine," she told reporters in Brussels. "All the other actors in the world are carefully watching how we act in this case and therefore we really need to be strong… Russia is not invincible, and we shouldn't underestimate our own power."

Like Trump, she calls on European countries to invest more in defence spending to better defend themselves against Russia, saying the EU must choose between "preparing to deter Russia" and "closing our eyes". On Russia's future ambitions in Europe, Kallas says "it is a question of when they will start the next war," not if. 

Her big challenge now will be to lead the EU's dealings with Trump when he returns to the White House, a challenge she is clearly relishing. "If the United States is worried about China, they should first be worried about Russia," she said recently. "If we look to history, isolationism has never worked well for America." 

She at least, if not Trump, knows the scale and magnitude of the responsibility international leaders have in 2025. "The world is on fire, so we have to stick together," she said, aptly summing up both the dangers and the task ahead.