Estonian EU commissioner-designate as high-representative and vice-president for foreign affairs and security policy Kaja Kallas attends her confirmation hearing at the European Parliament in Brussels on November 12, 2024. Photo by Nicolas TUCAT / AFP.
Brussels, Belgium: Backing Ukraine "as long as it takes", building bridges with Donald Trump and standing firm towards China -- the EU's designated foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas made her pitch to lawmakers at a confirmation hearing on Tuesday.
A hawkish Russia critic, the 47-year-old Kallas needs parliament's green light to succeed Josep Borrell as the bloc's top diplomat, though her approval is in little doubt since she was tapped directly by European Union leaders back in June.
If confirmed, she faces the daunting task of uniting the EU's diplomacy -- and the often-competing stances of 27 nation states -- as it navigates the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, Trump's return to the White House and a rising threat from China.
Throughout her three-hour hearing, the former Estonian prime minister emphasised the need for the EU to pull its weight as a "geopolitical player" -- by leveraging the voices of its members.
"The world is on fire, so we have to stick together," she said.
Most urgently, Trump's re-election has set nerves jangling in Europe that he could end support for Kyiv's fight against Russia.
Kallas said she was already looking to engage with the Republican and his team on Ukraine and broader security challenges.
"The EU and the United States are stronger and safer when we work together," she said, highlighting the threat to the "rules-based world order" posed by Russia, Iran, China and North Korea -- with Pyongyang accused of sending troops to fight alongside the Russians.
She warned that "China needs to also feel a higher cost" for keeping Moscow supplied with technology needed for the invasion of Ukraine, arguing that "without China's support, Russia would not be able to continue its war with the same force."
Likewise, "we should have a new approach to Iran," she said -- vowing to take up with EU foreign ministers the need for a "stronger plan" towards Tehran, accused of providing Russia with missiles and drones.
'Clear path'
Kallas was one of six designated vice presidents in EU chief Ursula von der Leyen's new European Commission facing lawmakers' scrutiny on the final day of a week-long hearings process.
A fierce critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, she has punched well above Estonia's weight since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine, championing plans to ramp up artillery shell supplies and bolster Europe's defences.
"The situation on the battlefield is difficult. And that's why we must keep working every day," she told lawmakers.
"Today, tomorrow and for as long as it takes and with as much military, financial and humanitarian help as needed."
EU members have provided Ukraine with more than $130 billion in military, humanitarian and financial aid since Russia's invasion, and opened accession negotiations with Kyiv in June, setting the war-torn country on a long path towards membership.
Kallas stressed support "must be underpinned by a clear path for Ukraine to join the EU."
While Kallas's hearing was largely dominated by the threat from Russia -- and to a lesser degree China -- she was pressed to deliver substance on other topics as well, from the promotion of human rights to relations with Africa or Latin America.
"I've heard you committed on Ukraine, on values against Russia, and I'm happy about that -- but on many other subjects, I didn't hear the same conviction," said the Green lawmaker Mounir Satouri.
On the Middle East -- a fraught topic for EU diplomacy, with member states starkly divided -- Kallas did not go beyond reiterating that "the security of Israel has to go together with the existence of Palestine."
Pivoting back to Beijing, she voiced support for a controversial trade deal between the EU and South America's Mercosur bloc, warning that unless it goes ahead "this void will be really filled by China."
