Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Sa’ar departed for Latvia on Monday, the first stop on a visit to Eastern Europe during which he is scheduled to inaugurate Israel’s new embassy in Tallinn, Estonia.
Sa’ar was scheduled to meet with his Latvian counterpart Baiba Braže in Riga later today.
The embassy in Tallinn will be Israel’s third to open this year at the decision of the foreign minister, after the opening of embassies in Moldova in February and in Zambia in August.
Estonia, a member of both the European Union and NATO, is a world leader in high-tech, and is considered a global pioneer in the digitalization of the public sector. It has maintained diplomatic ties with the Jewish state since 1992, and has had an embassy in Israel since 2009.
Sa’ar is expected to meet with Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal, Speaker of Parliament Lauri Hussar, Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna and Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur, according to Israel’s Foreign Ministry.
A high-level economic and business delegation will accompany Sa’ar on his trip, the ministry added.
The delegation will focus on the fields of technology, cyber and defense.
Representatives of Israeli companies will hold business meetings with dozens of Estonian firms that have already registered for the business forum and have shown great interest in Israeli technologies, according to the ministry.
The delegation is organized by the Foreign Ministry in cooperation with the Export Institute, the Israeli Defense Ministry and the Manufacturers’ Association of Israel.
In July, Sa’ar commended plans to open the embassy in Tallinn, saying, “This important move will contribute to our economic and defense partnership. It will help us deal with shared challenges.”
Russia’s brutal 2022 invasion of Ukraine has caused alarm in many European countries, including Scandinavia, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania.
Israeli President Isaac Herzog paid official visits to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia in August.
His diplomatic meetings focused on “strengthening bilateral ties including in the fields of economic and security cooperation,” according to a statement from the president’s office at the time.
