Estonia’s PM Kaja Kallas steps down to become EU’s top diplomat

Helsinki: Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas has stepped down as the leader of the Baltic country to become the foreign policy chief of the European Union later this year.

Kallas, Estonia’s first female prime minister, handed in her formal resignation to President Alar Karis during a brief meeting at the Presidential Palace in the capital, Tallinn, on Monday. Estonia under Kallas, 47, has been one of Europe’s most vocal backers of Ukraine following the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022. She replaces Josep Borrell of Spain, who has served as the EU foreign policy chief since 2019.

Summing up Kallas’ 3 1/2 years at the helm of the nation of 1.3 million, Karis said in a statement that “it has been a time full of crises, the milestones (such as) the coronavirus, the economic recession and the war in Europe, when Russia destroyed our previous security picture with its aggression in Ukraine”.

The PM’s move automatically triggered the resignation of Kallas’ three-party coalition Cabinet, made up of her center-right Reform Party, the Social Democratic Party and the liberal Estonia 200 party.