It was a second year in a row that this prominent foreign policy conference in the Nordic- Baltic region was attended by a Czech foreign affairs minister.

Minister Lipavský addressed the audience in one of the main stage panels called: „Computer World: Digital Security“, under the moderation of the former President of Estonia Toomas Hendrik Ilves. The panel discussed what is without doubt one of the most important topics of the 21st century. Digitalisation represents an opportunity as well as a challenge, as more and more human activities are shifting from physical to virtual space. Minister Lipavský underlined especially the need for keeping a human-centred approach to modern technologies: they develop rapidly, while humans don´t. We should not forget that technologies are here to serve us and not vice versa. We need to make sure that the human rights and freedoms are respected when regulating the technologies and cyber space. There was a lively discussion among the panelists, as well as a vivid interaction with the audience during the Q/A session.

After the panel discussion, Minister Lipavský participated in a lunch hosted by his Estonian counterpart Eva-Maria Liimets and which was also attended by his Danish colleague Jeppe Kofod. The lunch provided a good setup for an informal exchange of opinions on many important issues of current international affairs, such as the likely accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, Baltic region security, upcoming NATO summit in Madrid, energy security or the EU 6^th sanctions package.

Minister Lipavský subsequently also held bilateral talks with his Estonian colleague Eva-Maria Liimets and the Prime Minister of Estonia Kaja Kallas. In both cases, Russian aggression against Ukraine featured most prominently among the topics discussed, and leaders exchanged opinions how to sustain and co-ordinate assistance to Ukraine further. The upcoming Czech EU Presidency and its priorities was also tackled in a meeting with Prime Minister Kallas. After the meetings, ministers Lipavský, Liimets and Kofod left jointly for Berlin on the Czech Air Force airbus A319, to participate in an informal NATO ministerial.

Despite the visit being rather short, it underlined strong bilateral ties between Czechia and Estonia and demonstrated their strong alignment on many key issues of current international relations. They will have a chance to intensify further during the upcoming Czech presidency in the Council of European Union.