The top diplomat has claimed her intelligence is improving thanks to extensive reading
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, Berlin, Germany March 28, 2025. © Adam Berry / Getty Images
[RT] EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said she “will be very smart” by the end of her term thanks to her reading habits.
Kallas
made the remark at a press conference on Thursday after a journalist
offered to give her a book on Kurdish history by Masoud Barzani, the
first president of Iraq’s autonomous Kurdistan region.
“You know, my reading list is quite long,” she replied. “I am not telling you what I am reading right now but it is also about the history of different regions. So, by the end, when I finish this job, I will be very smart.”
Syrian Kurds, who served as a US proxy
in the war that ultimately ousted President Bashar Assad, recently
suffered a defeat from the forces of the new US-backed Türkiye-allied
government seeking to reintegrate Syria.
Kallas,
a former Estonian prime minister, has previously shared her reading
interests, which include works by Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair and
Henry Kissinger, histories of intelligence operations and regional
conflicts, and a biography of Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky.
The EU’s top diplomat has faced pushback for remarks critics
said distorted history to suit her anti-Russian views. Last September,
as Beijing hosted events marking the 80th anniversary of the end of
World War II, Kallas said it was news to her that Russia and China see
themselves as victors in the conflict. The USSR and China suffered the
highest Allied casualties in defeating the Axis powers.
In November, Kallas stated: “In the last 100 years, Russia has attacked more than 19 countries, some as many as three or four times. None of these countries has ever attacked Russia.” Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova called the comment a “monstrous” spin, adding: “We remember who attacked us and how many times… We remember where forces from each nation of Hitler’s clique were deployed.”
Kallas was blasted for lacking knowledge about world affairs by critics
inside the EU as well. MEP Martin Sonneborn said he expected more
insight about astrophysics from his pet hamster than about diplomacy
from her.