Urmas Reinsalu

From 1996 to 1997, Reinsalu worked as a specialist in public law in the Estonian Ministry of Justice, and as an advisor to then Estonian President from 1996 to 1998. In 1998, Reinsalu was appointed Director of the Office of the President of Estonia, when Lennart Meri was in office.[6][7] From 2001 to 2002, he worked as the political secretary of the Res Publica Party.[6] From 2002 to 2003, Reinsalu was a lecturer in the Estonian Academy of Security Sciences.

From 2007 to 2013, Reinsalu was a member of the Riigikogu, the unicameral parliament of Estonia. On 28 January 2012, Reinsalu became the chairman of the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union, an Estonian national-conservative, Christian-democratic political party, replacing Mart Laar.[8][9] He was elected chairman with an absolute majority in the first round of voting at the party congress held in Tallinn.[9]

On 11 May 2012, Reinsalu was appointed minister of defence, replacing Mart Laar, who resigned from office due to health reasons.[5][8][10][11] Reinsalu's term as the minister of defence ended on 26 March 2014, when he was replaced by Sven Mikser.[12] From 2014 to 2015, he was a member of the Riigikogu.

In the 2015 parliamentary election, Reinsalu was re-elected to the Riigikogu with 2,949 individual votes.[13] On 9 April 2015, Reinsalu became the minister of justice in Taavi Rõivas' second cabinet.

As the Pro Patria and Res Publica Union was the biggest loser in the elections with 9 seats lost, Reinsalu announced he would resign as party chairman after the party's congress in June 2015.[14] On 6 June 2015, he was replaced by Margus Tsahkna in the post.[15]

Reinsalu was the Estonian Minister of Foreign Affairs from April 2019 until January 2021.[16]

He returned to the foreign ministry in July 2022, after Prime Minister Kaja Kallas dismissed her Estonian Centre Party coalition partners.[17]

At the NATO Foreign Ministers meeting in November 2022 Reinsalu stated that "The message is clear: that all NATO allies are aware that the beast also wants to take control of the Western Balkans, and we need - by practical, deliverable support to help these countries to survive."[18]

On 31 March 2023 at a meeting of the Bucharest Nine Reinsalu called for the cancellation of the NATO-Russia Founding Act, because in his view cooperation with the country was "out of the question".[19]

At the NATO Foreign Ministers' Meeting on 4-5 April 2023 in an exclusive interview with the Kyiv Independent Reinsalu warned that a "false peace is prelude to new wars"; Reinsalu "think[s] it is very reasonable" if his country acted as a conduit for the Ukrainians to obtain F-16s.[20][21]