Kersti Kaljulaid

“Everybody has the right to decide their own fate.”

“Cyber attacks rain down on us from many places. You have to make your systems secure and safe and teach your people cyber hygiene.”

“Most new jobs created by global digital opportunities make people more independent. Fewer people will work for one company at a time or in the same country all the time. More will work remotely across borders.”

“Too many people in the world associate democracy with their ability to go and buy more and more every year. I come from a country where it's much more popular to remind people that democracy is available at every income level, and this is something which you need to protect.”

“I don't want to sound like I'm a special type of Russia hater. There are very few heads of state in Europe that would not like to have very good relations with Russia.”

“Estonians are much more used to Internet banking rather than an online credit card.”

“Every state aspiring to be part of the free world, able to decide its own destiny, deserves its chance. They may, in a not too distant future, contribute to all of us in ways we cannot imagine today.”

“NATO's deterrence has always been adequate, and I'm not worried about the physical security of my country. Not at all.”

“As the president of Estonia, I represent the only truly digital society which actually has a state; almost all our citizens' interactions with the government, including voting, can be done securely online, and our 'e-residents' can incorporate and run their businesses in Estonia without ever having to set foot here.”

“Globally, we need to make sure that markets are open... If we see that there are restrictions on free trade, then simple economic logic will demonstrate that this is not beneficial.”

“My mother was a doctor, and I grew up with her in a little apartment belonging to my grandmother, because the Soviet Union never saw fit to let our family have its own apartment.”

“The E.U. is more resilient than we give it credit for. We always muddle through.”

“I am very worried about politicians who know that their countries are greatly benefiting financially and at the same time are saying that the European Union is not good for us. The message has to be coherent.”

“Traditionally, nations have harnessed taxpayers to their territory by making almost all social guarantees dependent on working in one country, every day, every month, and for at least three decades. In creating free movement of people, this web has only got more complex but never disappeared.”

“Not everything is so bad... Whichever way you look at it, we feel that we can face the future when the liberal, democracy-based world sticks together. We have great trust that it will.”

“Digital society is born when your people refuse to use paper. And in our country, we know that our people refuse to use paper. If you arrive at such a point in your development, you have to make your digital state always secure.”

“Governments don't want to be the last ones in the digital sphere if their people and businesses are already there. We have to make clear that the free movement of services in the E.U. also applies in the digital sphere. The shortcut is to create a digital union.”

“I don't believe Russia would attack a NATO country or NATO as such, no matter which country we are talking about.”

“Our people are willing to work with the government on new technologies. Now, it's a habit; every Estonian looks at it as part of our national identity. We understand that this allows us to provide better services to our people than our money would allow.”

“We have every reason to put our trust in NATO and in transatlantic cooperation.”