Just under five months into her job as the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas admits it has been a roller coaster start as US President Donald Trump has turned the global order on its head.
Advertisement
“Every morning you wake up and it’s like do I dare, do I dare? OK, what’s happened?” she said, grimacing as she mimed checking her mobile phone.
“It’s crazy.”
A former prime minister of Estonia, Kallas, 47, was picked as foreign policy chief by her fellow leaders last June on the back of her fierce support for Ukraine in its war with Russia.
A hawkish critic of the Kremlin, she spent her career advocating for a strong Nato and close ties between Europe and the United States.
Advertisement
Now, in just a few short months Trump has upended much of that, reversing US support for Kyiv, drawing closer to Moscow and unpicking the Western alliance that has underpinned Europe’s security for generations.