Estonian Ambassador at UN Ernst Jaaksonʹs speech on 46th Session of the UN General Assembly (1991)

Estonia became a member of UN at the beginning of 46th session on September 17, 1991. Ernst Jaakson becomes the first permanent representative of Estonia at UN. According to the UN procedures, Ernst Jaakson gives an overview about the political situation and problematic issues in Estonia in the meeting on October 10th. In his declaration, Jaakson says that Estonian nation has finally fulfilled its long-term dream and restored its national independence that has been acknowledged by lots of states. Estonia highly values to be admitted to UN as a member country and is ready to fill its international responsibilities. Estonia is grateful for all those countries who have supported the country during the struggle towards freedom, especially Iceland. Ambassador Jaakson mentions that Estonians are well aware of living under the foreign power, thus Estonia is supporting the right of all nations for self-determination. Taking this into consideration, the government of the Republic of Estonia acknowledged independence of Slovenia on September 26th. Then Jaakson discusses the withdrawal of Soviet occupation troops from Estonia. Anatoly Sobchak, head of Soviet delegation while negatiating with Estonia, has repeatedly commented that the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Estonia cannot start before 1994. But this could happen sooner. Another especially disturbing issue is the continuous presence of nuclear weapns and assault troops in Estonia. Therefore, on October 5th the Baltic Council decided to make a propsal to the Soviet Union to evacuate its troops from the capitals of Baltic States by December 1st, 1991. At the final part of his talk, Jaakson analyses the issue of ethnic minorities in Estonia.