Estonia joins European air defense initiative

TALLINN - Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur at a meeting of NATO defense ministers on Thursday signed the European air and missile defense initiative initiated by Germany.

According to Pevkur, the goal of this initiative is to jointly promote and better integrate air defense with NATO allies. "Today's signing of the letter of intent provides a platform for further possible joint activities, such as joint procurement and sharing of maintenance costs," the minister said.

In Brussels, the defense ministers also discussed the current status of the implementation of the decisions agreed at the previous NATO summit in Madrid. "From Estonia's point of view, it is important that the Madrid decisions to strengthen the defense of NATO's eastern flank are quickly implemented. The British and other allies are and will remain in Estonia and the work towards the concretization of their contribution to the creation of the structure of our division continues," Pevkur said.

"In addition, we agreed with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on the fringes of the defense ministers' meeting that, during my visit to Washington next week, we would discuss how the US could increase its contribution to strengthening Estonia's security and defense," the defense minister added.

Due to the sabotage of the Nord Stream pipeline, protection of critical infrastructure and strengthening the resilience of infrastructure were also on the defense ministers' table.

"Estonia has started checking the connections between Estonia and Finland, and looking to the future, our desire is to increase information exchange with NATO allies in order to further strengthen the monitoring and security of the undersea and energy infrastructure of NATO countries," Pevkur said.

In addition, Pevkur will also meet bilaterally with the defense minister of Canada to discuss cooperation between countries within the framework of the NATO DIANA innovation initiative.