Estonia to send mine fighting ship to Middle East

  • 2014-01-07
  • From wire reports, TALLINN

Estonian defense minister Urmas Reinsalu has revealed plans to help the U.S. and U.K with a mine fihting operation in the Middle East.

Reinsalu met with U.S. counterpart Chuck Hagel to discuss defence cooperation between Estonia and the USA recently.

Speaking to reporters, Reinsalu, who is currently on a state visit in the U.S, revealed plans to contribute to a mine clearing operations in the Gulf of Persia.

"Among practical cooperation, we discussed the real possibility of Estonia, in the perspective of the coming years, to send one mine-fighter ship, in cooperation with the USA and Great Britain, to a mine-fighting operation at the Gulf of Persia," said Reinsalu, adding that no specific dates and time plans were mentioned.

Later, the defense ministers talked over the Afghanistan war operation and defense spending, Public Broadcasting reports.

Reinsalu reaffirmed Estonia's plans to spend the prescribed two percent of gross domestic product on defence expenditures.

Reinsalu said that the ministers discussed primarily the possibilities for organising consistent major exercises with NATO participation in the Baltic Sea region following the Steadfast Jazz war games in the Baltics and Poland.