Tere õhtust, kallid sõbrad,

Your Excellencies Ministers Liimets and Laanet,

Excellencies, dear colleagues ambassadors,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Dear Friends,

Thank you very much for coming to Viimsi today  to join us in celebrating the Day of the Czech statehood, and I want particularly to thank the Estonian War Museum for hosting us today.

It is a very special day for me, as it is the first Czech state reception hosted in my capacity as Ambassador to Estonia, and the same goes for our Defence Attaché Mr Pastyřík.

I am also extremely honoured that H. E. Mr Kalle Laanet, the Minister of Defence accepted our invitation today.

But before we say a few words on this festive occasion and give floor to our guests of honour, I would first kindly ask you to pay tribute to the national anthems of Czechia, Estonia and the European Union.

/anthems playing/

So, dear friends. Many of you may be wondering why we are meeting here today, about a month before 28 October, when we celebrate the emergence of independent Czechoslovakia after WWI. The reason is that exactly a month earlier, on 28 September, we celebrate the day of Czech statehood. So we thought that it could serve as a good opportunity to remind ourselves that our statehood is actually much older –  by more than a millennium – than our modern democratic state.

And in many respects, the history of these thousand years is quite illustrative of a typical middle-sized European country. There were periods when our sovereigns conquered territories beyond our borders, mainly from our neighbours. And then there were times, when we were controlled – either de facto or de iure – by others, mainly again by our neighbours.

But here we are, a thousand years later – alive and vibrant, resilient, proud, looking up to the future, cherishing the best relations with our neighbours and sharing a common European house  –  European Union – with them.

The Czech statehood is ultimately linked to the martyr death of St Wenceslas (or Václav in Czech), who became the Patron Saint of the Czech lands. His crown symbolized the unity of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia – which is also why we do not have a single historical name for the country and which was simply referred to as the Crown of St Wenceslas. And as you well know, the „Good King Wenceslas“ made it also to the Anglo – Saxon world, being featured in one of the favourite Christmas carols.

Although historically Czech relations with our beautiful host country, Estonia, were not as intensive as those of Nordic countries, I nevertheless dare to say that we share a lot in common.

Especially striking are parallels between our fortunes and misfortunes of the last century: we both established independent modern republics after WWI, just to fall within the Soviet sphere of influence after WWII,  and to restore democracy and freedom after the fall of the Berlin Wall, and finally to join the European Union and NATO.

These days, the Czech jetfighters are patrolling the Baltic airspace. Our soldiers are standing side by side in Sahel. We both want strong EU and strong NATO, free trade,  liberal single European market, vibrant Transatlantic bond, resilient Eastern Partnership and above all global rules-based order.

Only this order will ensure that the law of the jungle and survival of the fittest will never become a norm in our part of the world again.

I can fully subscribe to what Prime Minister of Estonia, H.E. Ms Kaja Kallas, earlier this month at the opening panel of the Lennart Meri Conference called as the main imperative of modern Estonian foreign policy: “never alone again”. This simple statement applies fully to us as well. And I am convinced that by working closely together bilaterally we can succeed in this quest. Elagu sõprus Eesti ja Tšehhi vahel!