UK troops headed to Baltics

TALLINN - Great Britain announced it will station troops in Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia to help protect NATO’s eastern borders, the UK defence secretary Michael Fallon announced this month.
Speaking at the quarterly meeting of NATO defence ministers in Brussels, Fallon said that “company sized units” of 100 troops will be part of new training exercises and to provide “reassurance” in the Baltics and Poland.
Fallon said: “We are committed to supporting the sovereignty of the democratic nations of Eastern Europe.
“We are already deploying RAF jets to the Baltics and providing crucial training to the Ukrainian armed forces.
“Now we will have a more regular drumbeat of troops deploying in the Baltics and Poland, and will step up our training effort in Ukraine.”  

The move, which will form part of the US-German Transatlantic Capability Enhancement and Training (TACET) initiative, builds on Britain’s contribution to policing Baltic air space.
Britain’s RAF Typhoon fighter jets are already stationed at Estonia’s Amari air base as part of NATO’s air policing mission, and have been interception Russian planes breaching European airspace since the start of the year.
Prime Minister Taavi Roivas suggested on Twitter that the troops will be based in Tapa after a weekend meeting in the UK with Prime Minister David Cameron.

He said: “Discussed security issues with @Number10gov. Welcomed UK’s troops to Tapa and Typhoons to Amari.”
The pair also discussed the refugee crisis in the Mediterranean, events in Georgia and Syria, and watched the Estonia v England football match at Wembley which saw the UK win 1-0.
A spokesman for Downing Street  said, “The Prime Minister welcomed Prime Minister Taavi Roivas of Estonia to Downing Street for bilateral talks.

“Prime Minister Roivas thanked the Prime Minister for the UK’s recent announcement to send regular deployments of troops to the Baltics for training with NATO partners.
“He also welcomed the UK’s commitment to spend 2 percent of GDP on defence – a commitment Estonia has also made. Discussing Russia and the situation in Ukraine, both Prime Ministers agreed on the need for sanctions to remain until the Minsk agreements have been implemented in full.”