Agerpres special correspondent to Tartu Dana Purgaru reports: 'I am proud of what happened in my country two days ago, I am proud of what happened in (the Republic of) Moldova a few months ago and I am proud of the development of these two countries that are not going through easy times,' His Royal Highness Prince Radu stated [while referring to the recent elections in both countries - editor's note] on Tuesday in a speech at the University of Tartu, in Estonia, where, together with Her Majesty Margareta, the Custodian of the Romanian Crown, he is paying a royal visit this week.

Prince Radu told the students, professors and rector Toomas Asser present in the Senate Hall of the University about King Mihai I and the challenges he faced during his rule of Romania, as well as about the recent history of our country and its democratic path, within the European Union and NATO.

His Highness spoke about the current challenges facing Romania and the Republic of Moldova, in the context of Russia's invasion of Ukraine. 'When the war in Ukraine began - and perhaps none of us thought that nowadays we would have a war on our borders - we immediately realized that what we had been trying to convey to the West for 30 years that the eastern flank of NATO and the EU is the most important of all these organizations, and suddenly this became a very tragic reality,' said Prince Radu in his address on the topic 'EU and NATO Eastern border's security. A Romanian perspective.'

'In the 90s and 2000s when we went to Washington DC, Paris or Berlin, Lisbon or Madrid to tell people about Eastern Europe, about our dignity, about our fear, about our identity, about the things we have to face, partly because we lived through 50 atrocious years of communism, there was a lot of respect, but not a lot of interest in listening to us. Now, when things have changed in Ukraine and we have this incredible situation in Moldova - a very, very small state, about which virtually no one has said anything in all these 35 years and which suddenly became 'so brave,' so 'incredibly resilient,' so 'open,' so 'trustworthy,' suddenly we didn't have to do that anymore; everywhere we went, from Luxembourg to Brussels or The Hague, people knew the situation (...),' Prince Radu emphasized.

In the current context, His Highness expressed his concern, but also optimism. 'We are worried about what will happen in (the Republic of) Moldova, about what will happen in Ukraine, about the cohesion of the European Union, which is one of the most incredible, beautiful and trustworthy constructions that the last century has created, but at the same time, we are proud of what our common thread has created, an extraordinary cohesion - so much understanding and so much effective help from countries like Germany and France, we have not seen in the last 20-30 years,' Prince Radu stated.

'This is the full half of the glass and we are convinced that (...) there is a tomorrow,' His Highness emphasised in Estonia, a country in the Baltic Sea region that borders Russia and which 'is one of the closest allies of Romania and the Republic of Moldova.'

'Estonia is a country with which we have a common enemy, with which we have common values and a common desire for dignity and a life in which our principles are respected, a very important bond, which goes beyond kilometers, borders, years of silence or other types of alienation that we were forced to face during half a century of communism,' Prince Radu emphasised.

The royal visit to Tartu on Tuesday, on a sunny and warm day, included a meeting with the commandant of the Estonian Military Academy, Viktor Kalnitski, as well as a trip to the National Museum of Estonia, where Her Majesty Margareta and Prince Radu were welcomed by the institution's director, Laura Kipper.

On this occasion, the two opened the exhibition 'Queen Maria of Romania - Queen Soldier' and visited three permanent exhibitions, 'Patriotic T-Shirts and The Baltic Way,' 'The Mother Flag' and 'The History in Pictures'.

Between and May 19 and 23, 2025, His Majesty the Custodian of the Crown and His Royal Highness Prince Radu will pay a visit to the Republic of Estonia, in the cities of Tallinn and Tartu, to support the cooperation between Romania and the Republic of Estonia within the European Union and NATO, as well as to support the European path of the Republic of Moldova.

The visit to Estonia continues the Romanian royal tour of the countries on the eastern flank of the EU and NATO, after the visits to Finland and Poland. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Mariana Ionescu, EN - writing by: Cristina Zaharia)