On April 4th, we are joined by the President of Estonia, Alar Karis, for an evening on the geopolitical situation in the Region.

Before Karis became president, he was among other things professor of developmental biology and rector of University of Tartu, founded by the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf.

Alar Karis was inaugurated as president in October 2021 and had barely had time to move in before russian troops marched into Ukraine. The support from Estonia and their Baltic neighbors has been enormous when taking into consideration their relatively small size. As of now, Estonia has pledged over one percent of its GDP in mainly military aid to Ukraine, which is more than any other nation and six times more than Sweden’s total support.

How is Estonia going to proceed when Russia’s becoming increasingly hostile towards its neighbors? How might the security relationship with Sweden pan out when the Nato ratification process is complete? And what is the future of Baltic security?

The past year has also shown how important it is to deepen cooperation within the Nordic-Baltic region. Sweden and Estonia have become testbeds for new ideas and digital innovation.