Estonia gets list of tasks from NATO for achieving membership

TALLINN (BNS) - NATO in late December presented a list of tasks to
Estonia to be fulfilled during the next six years, the fulfilment of
which is a prerequisite for the country's being admitted as member of
the alliance.

Defense Minister Juri Luik said on Jan. 11 the NATO document on
partnership goals contains an action plan for Estonia for the period
until 2006 and comes as an answer by the NATO Council to the
membership action plan submitted by Estonia earlier.

"In this document it is said for the first time that the fulfilment
of some of the concrete tasks is indispensable if one wants to become
a full member of NATO in the future,"Luik said.

Luik said the latest NATO document focused on the arrangement of
command structures but also on communications and support. It deals
with the solution of legal matters and refers to concrete battalions
and kinds of the armed forces.

The defense minister stressed that the year 2006 as the deadline for
meeting the established targets meant when Estonia could become a
member of the alliance.

NATO experts will come to Estonia in February to look at how the
requirements and recommendations set down in the document are being
fulfilled, he added.

"There's a clear difference in the document between the goals which
are meant for all countries and the ones that are meant for those who
wish to become full members of NATO,"Luik said. "NATO is taking us
seriously, but we have to meet the goals set down in that document
with no omissions."

Estonian Prime Minister Mart Laar is scheduled to speak at a session
of the North Atlantic Council on March 22, focusing his remarks on
Estonia's progress in attaining the goal of NATO membership.

Estonia is about to increase defense spending in the coming years,
which is one of NATO's main demands on countries aspiring for
membership, and plans to raise its defense budget to 2 percent of GDP
by the year 2002.

The country submitted the program for 2000 under its membership
action plan to NATO in late September.

The plan covers the years 2000-2005, but the government will present
a more detailed plan for each following year on an annual basis.

The plan for 2000 has five sections dealing with political and
economic issues, the military sphere, resources, security of
information and legal issues, with NATO checking how the targets are
met.

The most extensive and most detailed section of the plan concerns the
military sphere and is based on the defense forces development plan
for 2000-2005. According to the document, the goals set for the
Estonian armed forces for that period include raising the wartime
troops' readiness to 25,000-30,000 men, creating three reserve
infantry brigades and an air space surveillance system, as well as
developing its rapid reaction forces and increasing its minesweeping
capacity.

The priorities in weapons and equipment acquisitions for the years
2000-2005 are communications and air space surveillance systems,
anti-aircraft and anti-tank weapons as well as minesweeping equipment.

In training and staff policy, the country will act basing on the goal
that the number of conscripts would not exceed 3,000 in any separate
year and the number of infantrymen trained would decrease, allowing
the number of other kinds of troops to go up.

Estonia has declared it wants to be ready by 2002 to accede to NATO.