Dear Secretary-General,
Dear Guests,

I know that it's the third country already for you to visit in Central and Eastern Europe today, so you must be tired and waiting for the end of my speech even before I've begun.

Security has been compared to oxygen, the absence of which is noticed only when we are suffocating. As we know, it may be too late then. That's why there must be someone to remind us of the need for oxygen, and when the weather is fine it's a particularly unrewarding task.In Europe the weather has been fine for years. This has given rise to an illusion in Europe that the danger of suffocation no longer exists. And those few politicians who do concede security risks in Europe today do so nostalgically, almost longing for the good old times of the stable confrontation with the Soviet Union.

For Estonia, unlike Otto von Bismarck, Europe is not a mere geographical concept. For Estonia Europe means an endlessly expanding process of shared values. Let it be compared to Fred Hoyl's expanding universe. Standstill is stagnation, it's indecision. This is no longer called stability, its name is collapse. You, Mr Secretary-General, as well as I have a narrow choice: either we shape the future, or the future will be shaped by totalitarianism. There is no compromise, for there is no standstill future. A future one could escape. If we don't shape the future ourselves, it will be shaped by others instead of us. A recent survey of the Russian Foreign and Defence Committee has set the target of restoring the Soviet Union by 2005. I agree with the restorers of the Soviet Union on one point: the next five years will be fatal ones. They will show whether democracy will expand in Europe or totalitarianism will expand. The clock is ticking already, and a watch is also ticking in your waistcoat pocket, Mr Secretary-General.

That's why I can assure you: there is sufficient political will in Estonia to define the problem and to find a solution to it. That's where the source of our optimism lies. That's the reason why we intend to use all the possibilities of PfP, and intend to expand the possibilities. That's the reason why we have declared, from the very beginning, our determination to become a NATO member state. That's the reason why we won't let the European clock stop. We are also ready to wind up the watches hidden in waistcoat pockets. Unlike Europe, we know how little time is left for Europe to wake up.

Mr Secretary-General, I raise my glass to toast the North Atlantic Alliance; to Europe!

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