Estonia’s Foreign Affairs chair to spotlight security cooperation aims during upcoming US visit

TALLINN, Estonia — The chairman of the Estonian parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, Marko Mihkelson, is heading to Washington in early July, where he’ll meet with his American counterparts and reinforce commitments to the nations’ bilateral security partnerships and the NATO alliance. 

The planned engagement approaches as the war between Russia and Ukraine rages on, the U.S. and Israel have been bombing Iran, and China worries the West with its ongoing military buildup.

Mihkelson shed light on his team’s plan for the upcoming trip during a briefing with DefenseScoop and other participants in the country’s Defence Study Programme last week.

“We’re not asking for anything. We are showing through our own commitments and actions, and what is our understanding on what should be done together as allies — and why it is important our alliance and Europe remain as good allies for us when it comes to how to balance China and China’s growth,” he said.

Mihkelson has served in the Riigikogu (the official name for the Parliament of Estonia) for more than two decades. Prior to that, he worked in multiple capacities as a journalist, including as a foreign correspondent based in Moscow. 

At last week’s briefing, he provided an overview of his nation’s current political and industrial landscape, particularly in the context of national security. 

Estonia is known globally for its efficient operation of digital government services. Mihkelson said this legacy is in many ways linked to the nation’s history of being occupied by the Soviet Union for 50 years, before gaining independence in the early 1990s. Now, according to the MP, Estonia has the highest number of technology startup “unicorns,” with a valuation of $1 billion or more, per capita in the world. 

Regarding his upcoming trip to Washington, which will mark his fifth in this capacity, Mihkelson said his team aims to meet with a range of U.S. government leaders — including members of the new Trump administration, lawmakers and officials serving at the State and Defense Departments.

“In the Pentagon, it’s critically important — especially for our Defence Ministry right now — to understand, kind of, what is [senior leaders’] way of thinking? What is [Undersecretary of Defense for Policy] Elbridge Colby thinking currently about the force posture in Europe or in Asia? And when I asked Americans in the south of Estonia, ‘What if somebody could ask you is it worth it to be here? Can you train enough? Is it really, like, important for you to be here as a soldier?’ The answer was ‘Absolutely, yeah,’” he told DefenseScoop. “This is why we have to be constantly in communication with Washington as well, to make sure that they at least get some sort of feedback directly from us, about what is important for us as a really committed ally.”

Officials in his delegation are also looking to meet with “think tankers” from the Hudson Institute, Heritage Foundation, and other organizations that prioritize shared research interests with Estonians.

Noting that his team previously had “quite a difficulty” meeting with the National Security Council and other White House elements of the former Biden administration, Mihkelson said he’s keen to engage with “smart people who understand the strategic reality in its complexity” now serving under President Donald Trump. 

Sens. Rick Scott, R-Fla., and Mike Lee, R-Utah — who recently met with the chairman in Estonia — are among the lawmakers he’s looking to connect with again while in Washington.

Regarding topics on the docket for discussion with his American counterparts, Mihkelson pointed to ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, and what he referred to as expanding efforts by Russia and China to divide the U.S. and its allies. 

“[China is] strongly united against, first and foremost, the United States,” he said, adding that Beijing seeks to undermine the U.S. internally and globally “as a leader of the free world.”

This preview of the trip was held shortly before Trump ordered the bombing of three nuclear sites in Iran.

But on the conflict that continues to evolve in the Middle East, Mihkelson said last week that he was “more than sure that the status quo is broken” after Israeli airstrikes destroyed what he called “quite significant amounts” of Iranian military assets.

“This might end up with very dramatic change, not only in the Middle East, but that will affect all of us,” he noted.

Beyond “close allies in America” and around Europe, Mihkelson and other members of the parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee are also set for trips to meet with some of their security partners in the Pacific region, including New Zealand, Australia, Japan and the Philippines.  

“It’s just to really understand better what’s happening in that part of the world, which is very much directly connected to our security when it comes to progression in Taiwan, of course. And it’s also to explain, how do we see what should be done together as partners and with our allies to make sure that Russia and China will not succeed in destroying the world,” Mihkelson told DefenseScoop.