Dear fellow countrymen from all over the world,
Distinguished guests,

The world we live in has changed by 1996. Great powers are seeking a new role in this changed world. International organizations, not least the United Nations, are seeking a new role. ESTO is seeking a new role.

ESTO was born of yearning. The Second World War reduced Estonians by a quarter. The survivors were scattered all over the world, eastward and westward. It was an exodus of Estonians, comparable only to the fate of Jews. The Republic of Estonia was swept from the map. Where could one hear Estonian spoken? Where could one see the Estonian flag flying? Where was the Republic of Estonia? Did it exist at all, or had independent Estonia been nothing but an episode in world history? A death into oblivion awaited Estonia.

ESTO was born of yearning. Estonians who had wound up scattered over the Free World came together, as if to the gates of Eden. But unlike Adam and Eve they did not feel naked: they suddenly saw that Estonians were a multitude. The will, and the skill to cooperate, something Estonians had learnt through their song festivals, had turned the small fragment of a people into a big one. ESTO raised hopes, instilled confidence, set new aims.

So was it a realization of a yearning? Not only. True, during Estonian festivals Estonian flags were flying in cities of three continents and Estonian was ringing in the streets. More books of fiction were published abroad than in our homeland imprisoned behind the iron curtain.

However, the role of ESTO is immensely greater than just cultural identification of an ethnic minority.

Culture is the reverse side of politics. A strong cultural identity is the foundation of political goals and vice versa. Good politics always supports and is supported by a potent culture. Especially so with small nations.

Distress about a death of oblivion gave rise to ESTO. The confidence that took its origin from ESTOs lit a fire under the pot we know by the name of international law. The ESTOs following the first never let that fire extinguish. The pot had been set on the fire, and though the fire was slow it was simmering. International law has had a central role in the moulding of the fate of Estonia. It was the basis of the policy of the Western countries known as the non-recognition policy: the democratic world has never recognized the incorporation of the Baltic countries into the Soviet Union following their military occupation. In other words, international law kept alive the continuity of Estonian statehood through the grim years of Soviet occupation.

The VIIth ESTO this year is special: it starts right now here in Sweden, a permanent bastion of the Free World, and will continue at home, in the Republic of Estonia which at long last is free again.

Does it follow that ESTO has fulfilled its function? That we are meeting for the last time?

Dear fellow countrymen, distinguished guests, -- anything but this!

We need ESTO. The world needs ESTO. True, the face of the world has changed. But so has the face of threats. Smaller states are still threatened by the looming temptation of dividing the world into spheres of influence. Two weeks ago, on the anniversary of the deportation of General Johan Laidoner, I said what I am now going to repeat before you: ''The supreme commandment of our hearts must be to take solicitous care of the national security of the Republic of Estonia. None but ourselves will do it for us. Every nation wishing to last as a state must evince its will for it. A nation can only rely on itself. And only after we have evinced our will shall we suddenly see that Estonia is not alone, after all. We shall see that the whole democratric world is our ally.''

Our common responsibility to the Estonian people, the Estonian language, the Estonian state reveals itself in our common responsibility for the security of the democratic world. The security of the democratic world is indivisible, or else it is non-existent. A year ago I sent you a message from Kadriorg with this wish: ''May the guiding principle of ESTO-96 be the intertwinement of Estonia and the democratic world!'' It is here and in this that I see our common field of action. The guarantee of the survival of Estonia lies in the integration of our country with European and Atlantic structures. This is a lesson our own historical experience has taught us. And history will not run extra rehearsals. Either we learn at once, or it will be a flop. This is, first and foremost, where I see our common field of action during today's (and hopefully the next) ESTO, beginning under the friendly skies of Sweden and going on under the friendly skies of Estonia.

I thank everybody present here, and through you the peoples and governments of the countries of your residence, for upholding Estonia's hopes, democratic ideals of freedom, common Western values and Estonian statehood!

As the 28th head of state of the Republic of Estonia I have the honour to open the VIIth ESTO Days in Sweden and Estonia.

Dear fellow countrymen, distinguished guests, welcome to ESTO!

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