19 May, Foreign Minister Liimets met with Gilles Carbonnier, Vice-President of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), and talked about humanitarian aid in Ukraine, the protection of international humanitarian law and cooperation in cyber and digital affairs.
According to recent data, more than 6 million people have fled Ukraine and more than 15 million Ukrainians need humanitarian aid. “Until Ukraine has won the war, we will continue all efforts to ensure vital humanitarian aid and alleviate human suffering. An important task of the International Red Cross is to identify people who have gone missing in the war and notifying their next of kin. They have helped the families of victims in Ukraine get information about what happened to their loved ones. I would like to note that we often only found out about the fate of Estonians who went missing in the Second World War after 1991.”
At the meeting with Carbonnier, the foreign minister underlined our duty to protect the rules-based order and international humanitarian law. “All countries, including Russia, must respect international humanitarian law. It is crucial in every war to respect and protect the lives of civilians, and not destroy kindergartens, schools and hospitals. Estonia is also consistently standing up for holding all perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity accountable without any reservations,” Liimets said.
The foreign minister noted that Estonia is posting four experts to a long-term mission to the investigation team of the International Criminal Court, which is documenting and investigating crimes committed by Russia in Ukraine.
At the meeting, Liimets and Carbonnier also discussed cooperation on cyber and digital affairs. “With our diverse expertise and experience, Estonia can contribute to the protection of international humanitarian law in cyberspace and digitalisation to ensure the continuity of humanitarian aid services,” the foreign minister said.
