Estonian defense minister stresses importance of independent defense capability

  • 2017-03-07
  • BNS/TBT Staff

TALLINN - Estonian Minister of Defense Margus Tsahkna who attended a joint meeting of European Union foreign and defense ministers in Brussels on Monday emphasized that the EU will be strong if all member states invest sufficiently in independent national defense.

"To give real content to our security cooperation goals, we must dedicate sufficient resources to national defense as EU member states," Tsahkna said. "The EU will have credibility as a global contributor only if each member state is committed to national security and defense and uses adequate resources for this."

A strong Europe is founded on the unity and solidarity of allied countries, Tsahkna said. "Estonia supports European defense cooperation which involves and benefits all member states," he said. "In addition to strengthening defense cooperation within the EU, we have to move forward with the EU-NATO strategic cooperation so as to ensure mutually complementary uniform collaboration."

The defense and foreign ministers approved plans to improve the command capability of the EU's civilian and military training and advisory missions. As soon as this spring a Military Planning Conduct and Capability facility will be established. The main task of 30 or so staff will be to analyze and plan operations as well as organize troop building.

At the joint meeting security policy-related parts of the EU's foreign and security strategy were reviewed. The ministers also discussed advancing permanent structured cooperation and harmonization of member states' defense planning.