Foreign Minister Erkki Tuomioja’s statement on the death of Estonian Ambassador Priit Kolbre

Press release 197/2006
20 June, 2006

I was deeply shocked to hear yesterday that Ambassador Priit Kolbre had died unexpectedly. His premature death is a great loss to both Estonians and Finns. Estonia has lost one of the country’s most experienced diplomats, who had helped create the Estonian foreign service after the country had regained independence, contributing in particular to the country’s foreign trade policy, which has proved to be successful.

Later, Ambassador Kolbre was Estonia’s representative to the European Union at a time when decisive negotiations with the ten candidate countries were brought successfully to conclusion. When Estonia acceded to membership of the European Union on 1 May 2004, Priit Kolbre had already transferred back to Tallinn and had accepted the demanding duties of Secretary General at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia. Last autumn he was appointed Estonia’s ambassador to Finland, a post he held only for an eight-month period.

His fate resembles that of Finland’s Antti Satuli. Both were among their country’s leading diplomats; they were colleagues both as ambassadors in Brussels and as secretaries of state in their respective ministries. Both passed away far too soon.

In losing Priit Kolbre, Finland has lost a warm friend and outstanding representative of a closely related nation. We express our sincere condolences to his family and to the people of Estonia.