Kaja Kallas has emerged as one of Europe’s most prominent diplomats, serving as the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission since December 2024. She attracted the limelight recently with her statements and briefings on EU’s positions on Greenland and Ukraine, and also her persistence on following rule based order and UN Charter, at a time when US and Iyer President Donald Trump are trying to scuttle everything for US interests.

Born on June 18, 1977 in Tallinn, Estonia, she broke barriers as the country’s first female prime minister from 2021 to 2024, leading the centre-right Reform Party with a staunch pro-Western stance amid Russia’s aggression against Ukraine. Her career blends legal expertise, national leadership, and EU diplomacy, marked by unyielding support for Ukraine and efforts to bolster Europe’s strategic autonomy.

Kallas hails from a politically influential family; her father, Siim Kallas, chaired the Bank of Estonia, served as prime minister, and later became an EU commissioner. Her early life reflected Estonia’s turbulent history: her mother and grandmother endured Soviet deportation to Siberia in 1949, an experience Kallas often cites to underscore her anti-authoritarian resolve. Educated at the University of Tartu, where she earned a law degree in 1999, she specialised in European competition law, rising to partner at firms like Tark & Co and Luiga Mody Haal Borenius. Before politics, she advised on corporate matters and sat on boards of energy and wind power companies, gaining insight into Estonia’s post-Soviet economic revival.

Entering politics in 2010, Kallas joined the Reform Party and secured a seat in Estonia’s parliament (Riigikogu) in 2011, chairing the Economic Affairs Committee. Elected to the European Parliament in 2014, she championed the Digital Single Market, energy policy, and EU-Ukraine ties, earning recognition as one of Brussels’ most influential MEPs. Returning home, she became Reform Party leader in 2018 and formed Estonia’s first female-led government in 2021 after a corruption scandal toppled the previous coalition. Her tenure navigated the energy crisis, legalised same-sex marriage in 2023, and saw Reform triumph in elections that year.

Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine defined her premiership; Estonia donated weapons exceeding 0.8% of GDP per capita—more than any nation relative to size—while Kallas decried Europe’s Russian gas dependence and opposed Nord Stream 2. Dubbed “Europe’s Iron Lady,” she rallied for Ukraine’s EU and NATO bids, rejected territorial concessions, and barred Russian tourists, framing travel as a privilege.

Controversies arose, including her husband’s logistics firm ties to Russia post-invasion, prompting opposition calls for resignation, which she dismissed as a “witch-hunt.” Russia issued an arrest warrant in 2024 over Soviet monument removals.

Nominated in June 2024, Kallas assumed her EU role after parliamentary approval, visiting Ukraine on day one to affirm “victory” support. She has condemned China’s enabling of Russia’s war machine, warned against US-Russia “appeasement” under President Trump, and pushed sanctions on Georgia’s government. In 2025, she backed Israel’s self-defence post-Hamas attacks, lifted select Syrian sanctions, and urged EU-Turkey cooperation despite divides.

Recently, on January 21, 2026, she announced an EU-India security and defence partnership, set for signing at the New Delhi summit on January 27 amid Republic Day festivities, alongside trade and mobility pacts. She also rebuked challenges to Greenland’s sovereignty, tying Arctic security to Ukraine.

Fluent in five languages, married to banker Arvo Hallik with a son from a prior relationship, Kallas draws on history—befriending scholars like Timothy Snyder—for her worldview.