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President Ilves to participate in Munich Security Conference: boundless crises, reckless spoilers, helpless guardians

11.02.2016

President Toomas Hendrik Ilves will take part in the 52nd Munich Security Conference from today until Sunday; this year, the debates will focus on the current and future international security policy challenges, including the future of security in Europe, the situation in Ukraine and conflicts in the Mediterranean region.

The Estonian Head of State will take part in various debates during the annual international foreign and security highlight event, which will focus on security in Europe, the future of the economy, the migration crisis and IT development and cyber security.

At the invitation of the organisers, President Ilves will address 120 top shapers of policy and economic life at the so-called European dinner, where he intends to speak about his ideas for Europe and ways to overcome crises. The Estonian Head of State has been also invited to participate in a debate on "Free Trade, Welfare and Security".

The Munich Security Report, which was published on the eve of the conference, characterises the current security situation with the words "boundless crises, reckless spoilers, helpless guardians".

The Munich Security Report, which is available at http://bit.ly/20oGSYI, starts by citing President Ilves, who has said that the period of peace and stability that followed the Cold War is over now: "Speaking about the EU's inadequate response to the migrant crisis, the rise of nationalism in Europe, and Russia's aggressiveness, Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves recently invoked the ghosts of a horrible past. "We're entering 'a low dishonest decade,'" Ilves said, referencing W.H. Auden's "September 1, 1939" poem. The world, especially as seen from the West, may indeed be in its worst shape since the end of the Cold War. Overwhelmed, sometimes helpless guardians are faced with boundless crises and empowered, reckless spoilers."

The delegation that accompanies the Estonian Head of State to the 52nd Munich Security Conference includes the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Marina Kaljurand, and the Undersecretary for Political Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, ambassador Kyllike Sillaste-Elling. Ieva Ilves as an acknowledged expert on cyber security and eastern neighbourhood countries will also take part in the conference.

The Munich Security Conference, the most important annual trans-Atlantic security and foreign policy forum, will this year bring together more than 20 heads of state and government leaders, multiple ministers of defence and foreign affairs from all over the world. President of the Republic of Finland, Sauli Niinistö, President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko, the Prime Minister of France, Manuel Valls, the Prime Minister of Iraq, Haider al-Abadi, the Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, the State Secretary of the United States of America, John Kerry, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of France, Laurent Fabius, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Russia, Sergei Lavrov, and the British Minister of Defence, Michael Fallon, are all expected to attend the event.

Office of the President
Public Relations Department