Estonia's FM: UN Charter's ban on force must not become optional

Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna has published an article outlining Estonia's goals for the upcoming UN High-Level Week in New York. He frames the central question as whether the UN Charter's prohibition on changing borders by force is a binding rule or merely a recommendation.

Tsahkna recently spent three days in Ukraine, where he says Russia is openly violating core UN Charter principles through drone and missile attacks aimed at spreading fear and breaking Ukrainian resistance. He warns that if Russia succeeds in changing borders by force without consequence, the entire international legal order underpinning Estonia's own independence would be weakened.

Curbing veto power

Estonia and its partners want to change how Article 27 of the UN Charter is applied, so that a state that has launched an act of aggression could not use its veto to block Security Council decisions concerning that same aggression. Estonia also wants the UN General Assembly to take on a greater role when the Security Council is paralyzed by a veto.

Tsahkna further argues that the next UN secretary-general must be committed to defending the Charter even when doing so is inconvenient for major powers. Estonia has worked for years toward a more transparent selection process for the role.

Rallying support for Ukraine

High-Level Week gives Estonia a chance to engage countries with which it lacks regular contact and to rally broader support for Ukraine. Tsahkna notes that civilians, including children, are killed daily in Russian attacks, and that Russia has separated roughly 20,000 children from their families and deported them to Russia — bringing them home is a top Estonian priority.

Estonia will also host a discussion on maritime security in New York and is using its current chairmanship of the Nordic-Baltic Eight (NB8) format to mobilize broader international support for Ukraine.