We are sharing the press release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Estonia:
On Friday, November 14, Estonian Ambassador to the UN Office in Vienna Arti Hilpus presented his credentials to Ghada Waly, Director-General of the UN Office in Vienna, who also serves as Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).
During the discussion following the presentation of credentials, the Ambassador and the Executive Director spoke about cooperation between Estonia and UNODC. “The work carried out by UNODC supports Estonian officials in combating crime,” said Hilpus. “For example, the analytical reports on global trends in drug trafficking and the fight against human trafficking are highly valued.” Director-General Waly acknowledged Estonia’s significant contribution to the negotiations on the UN convention against cybercrime and invited Estonia to sign and ratify the treaty swiftly.
The meeting also addressed Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, which threatens not only European security but also global peace and the rules-based international order. “Russia’s assault on Ukraine is in violation of the UN Charter and completely unacceptable,” said Hilpus. UNODC is also contributing to supporting Ukraine, with one of its field offices located in Kyiv since 2007. The office assists Ukraine in combating corruption, organized crime, and drug trafficking, as well as in border management and criminal justice.
The UN Office in Vienna (UNOV) was established in 1980 as a representative office of the Secretary-General and is, alongside Geneva and Nairobi, one of the three main UN Secretariat centers outside New York. Vienna hosts the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA). UNOV manages the Vienna International Centre, which accommodates not only UN Secretariat bodies but also several other international organizations.
Arti Hilpus was born in 1972. He graduated in history from the University of Tartu and completed an international course at the Geneva Centre for Security Policy. In 1996, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as Director of the Personnel Office, later serving as Director of the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy Division (1999–2001 and 2005–2006) and Director of the Security Policy Division (2006–2008). From 2001 to 2004, he worked as a diplomat at the Estonian Embassy in Berlin. Hilpus served as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Norway and the Republic of Iceland (2009–2012), and subsequently as Ambassador to Bosnia and Herzegovina, North Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia (2012–2015), to Russia (2015–2018), and to Latvia (2018–2022). Before taking up his current post, he was Director of the Arms Control Division in the Ministry’s NATO and Transatlantic Relations Department (2022–2025). Since autumn 2025, Hilpus has served as Estonia’s Ambassador to Austria and to the international organisations based in Vienna. He resides in Vienna.
