Just under five months into her job as the EU’s top diplomat, Kaja Kallas admits it has been a rollercoaster start as US President Donald Trump has turned the global order on its head.
“Every morning you wake up and it’s like do I dare, do I dare? OK, what’s happened?” she told AFP, 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.
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.
“It’s like, you know, if you take a vase and you broke it, you can glue it back together — but it’s not the same,” Kallas said, speaking in her 12th floor office in the European Commission’s headquarters.
“So I have the same feeling that you can patch it together but the trust is broken — and it’s not the same.”
– OPENLY HOSTILE –
As the world scrambles to adjust to Trump’s upheaval, so Kallas has had to recalibrate her role — and fast.
The new US administration is openly hostile to the European Union and has sidelined the bloc as it pushes ahead with efforts to end the Ukraine war.
Kallas experienced firsthand this attitude when she flew to Washington in February only for Secretary of State Marco Rubio to cancel a meeting.
She insists she actually has “very friendly” relations with Rubio after positive meetings at other events and a string of phone calls.
Meanwhile Europe has increasingly splintered into smaller groups with big powers such as France and former EU member Britain taking the lead on marshalling a response.
Kallas agrees these “coalitions of the willing” are useful — especially to circumvent opposition from Russia-friendly countries such as Hungary — but she frets the EU is punching below its weight.
“Our adversaries don’t like the European Union because we are strong when we act together,” she said.
“But if we are together, then we are equal powers, and there’s a difference. Then we can talk like equals.”
– ‘PETTY FIGHTS’ –
The job of EU high representative, as it is officially called, has frequently been described as a near impossible task.
The 27 member states still all set their own, sometimes clashing, foreign policies and the position lacks the powers to force them into line.
“The member states don’t want her to set the tone, to lead, they want another bureaucrat,” said one diplomat, speaking as others on condition of anonymity.
“So anybody there will face criticism.”
Kallas is the only former national leader to hold the post and has sought to bring that clout to bear.
That has sometimes seen her rub the notoriously territorial diplomats and bureaucrats in Brussels up the wrong way.
“She is often too dogmatic, too stubborn, unable to see the wood for the trees,” a second senior diplomat said.
Kallas quickly came up against the limits of her powers after trying, and failing, in a push to get member states to pledge a mammoth 40-billion-euro arms package for Ukraine.
In the face of opposition from powerful players such as France and Italy, she scaled back the push to two million artillery shells — and now claims two-thirds of that has already been done.
“What is the most frustrating is the petty fights between the EU institutions,” Kallas said.
“I don’t mind if the thing gets done. I mean, this is important right now, not who gets to score a point.”
– ‘INVIGORATING’ –
Kallas insists the head-spinning changes caused by Trump also have upsides for her job as she seeks to boost Europe’s influence from Asia to Africa and Latin America.
“It’s invigorating us because we see all these countries at our door,” she said.
“Everybody is looking at Europe because we are the credible, reliable and predictable partner. That is actually, also an opportunity for us to grow our geopolitical power.”
She is pushing the EU’s diplomatic arm to be more nimble and points to successes like getting most member states to vote for a UN resolution backing Ukraine despite US pressure.
“It’s hard to navigate this but you have to be really agile and ready to move and change also your thinking,” she said.
And does she really think she has an impossible job over the next five years in office?
“I’m trying to do my best and hope that it’s good enough,” she said.
“It’s difficult definitely — but ask me again in 55 months”.