Excellencies,
Dear Estonian People,

In a few moments the town of Võru is sending off our victory flame. A torch with the victory flame will be taken to each county by Estonian servicemen. Victory Day is the holiday of Estonian servicemen. Their flame will light our thousand-year-old Midsummer Night bonfire. In its light we do not lower our flag. Once a year, on Midsummer Night, our flag flies above every Estonian home from dusk to dawn. This is the way it has been, and this is the way it will be. But tonight's bonfire will cross the country's border and carry Estonia's message to the capitals of our neighbour countries and even farther, to the peoples and governments of our partner countries.

Estonia has three messages today.

Message one. We have taken in that in great likelihood Estonia will not get on the list for the first round of NATO enlargement. We are not scared by it. Estonia has never expected to be able to hide behind somebody's back who will protect, shelter and pamper her. Every country, especially a small one, will remain alone for as long as it counts on others. This is what it was like in the War of Liberation, when to the astonishment of great powers we realized our right to self-determination and took up arms to defend it against forces which still continued to dream of the restoration of empires. This is what it was like in the War of Liberation, when despite the bitter opposition of great powers we signed a peace treaty with our adversaries in Tartu. This is what it was like just a few years ago, when despite criticism we re- established the Estonian kroon and with its aid got free from colonial dependence. This historical experience is not without its reverse: a small country is never alone if it remains faithful to its rights and duties, if its political self-realization is reasonable, purposeful and uncompromising over principles. Estonia is one such country. Estonia has found her place in the world and has no intention to cede it to anyone. Estonia has announced and is announcing today that our goal is integration with Euro-Atlantic economic and security structures, for we have no intention to join the CIS, and there is no third way in the world. May something be understood by everyone: we are not suffering from any fear complexes, we have no enmity for anyone, but we have decided to lead a sovereign and independent life. This is our will, which in case of need we will bear out with arms. But I can assure you, my dear fellow countrymen, that if our determination about independence is obvious, if the image of our country is clean and stainless, if our ability to defend our independence is convincing, the price of Estonia's integrity will be so high that we won't have to prove it with arms. Stronger than any arms is the will of the people. This will is based on a strong morale. The first, the primary security guarantee for Estonia is the Estonian citizen. The united will of Estonian citizens. Unanimity on the issues that the survival or demise of the country depends on. Don't let yourselves be disturbed by sabre-rattling or rhetorical threats. The time of Molotovs and Ribbentrops is over, and it will never return if we abide by our principles. If we prove to the great that the principles of freedom, democracy and rule of law can raise a small country towering above big ones. If the world sees us display our will, our iron will.

Message two. So what can we say about our will of defence today and how can it be transformed into defence capability? The foundation of Estonian statehood is national security. Internal and external security. The security of Estonia as well as other European countries may be endangered by social and economic instability, international crime, regional conflicts. These are well-known things. But the security of Estonia as a small state and Estonians as a small people is also endangered by our own internal indolence and external coxcombry. For instance, our security is endangered by corruption. Our security is endangered by disrespect for our mother tongue, for instance by the belittlement of our national culture; for instance by non-selective ''openness'' to everything that is foreign. I am speaking of spiritual security, which for small nations is as essential as military security. We must not forget this simple truth: the existence of the Estonian state is meaningful only as long as the Estonian territory sustains the Estonian mother tongue and its speakers, the Estonian culture and its creators. This and only this distinguishes the state of Estonia from the state of Latvia, the state of Russia, the state of Brussels.

Message three. The world economy has knitted together like the lands of a single farm. Estonia cannot remain a cotter. Estonia cannot seclude herself, nor has she secluded. This has been achieved by the Estonian economy even more convincingly than by the Estonian politics. Nearly two-thirds of our total trade is linked with the European Union member countries, and that Union now is also the aim of Estonia's political aspirations. Our trade has proved that the quality of an Estonian's work, Estonian labour has established itself in the European market.

The European Union will take decisions this year that will directly affect Estonia's future. A framework of circumstances for those decisions is being shaped by our own activity. Or inactivity. In the interests of Estonia's future I call on our politicians and our people to proceed first and foremost from the need for stability, from the consolidation of internal stability.

Dear Estonian people!

These are my three messages, and it is your task to cast them into one single message. This is precisely how I want to address you that are present at this formation of the Defence Forces: dear Estonian people. For the defence of our country is in the hands of our people. The survival of Estonia depends on every one of us. Who else but everyone by themselves will take care of one's home? Just as the appearance and persistence of everyone's home depend on themselves, the security of our common home depends on our joint contribution. The Estonian people have won their road of independence; soon our Republic will be eighty years old. All of us are called upon to defend and maintain this independence - servicemen as well as housewives. There can be no independent Estonia without our people and without our will. And Estonians do have a will to use all the methods in the contemporary world to safeguard the security of their people and their state. Estonia has a voice in the international community of nations. Over a short period of time after the recapture of independence on our native soil we have worked our way to the position of a likely candidate for the first round of the enlargement of the European Union. To safeguard her national security, Estonia has engaged in intensive cooperation with the structures of NATO; we have participated in the international Partnership for Peace, in peacekeeping; the BaltBat is operating; before long international military exercises under the symbolic name of Baltic Challenge will begin in another corner of Estonia. Estonia's goal, Estonia's starting platform for further enhancement of national safety and security is full membership in NATO. In Madrid this summer NATO will name its first new candidate countries, but more important than the details of enlargement - the specific names - is a message that NATO enlargement, i.e. the expansion of the security space at the expense of grey zones, is a process rather than a sequence of one-off acts. Security is not produced by separate units, the work goes on continuously. It is a process like the growing of grass, imperceptible and continuous. Thus, lighting here the victory flame for today's Midsummer Night, we can fearlessly look into one another's eye and assert that Estonia's will to defend herself and her independence is unbreakable. This very Midsummer Night bonfire that lights up here in Võru will also shine into our partner countries and will spread this very message. May tonight's Midsummer bonfire be the glisten of Estonia's eyes with which Estonia looks at her partners and asserts her unflinching stand in the defence of independence.

Have a lovely Midsummer! A lovely summer! May you see lovely times, my dear Estonian people, my dear Estonian land!

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