PM Rõivas: Wales Was Estonia's Most Successful Summit in Last 10 Years
The NATO Summit in Newport, Wales held Thursday and Friday agreed on boosting NATO's presence in the Baltics and Poland, increasing response speed and establishing prepositioned stocks of weapons and equipment - nearly everything short of permanent bases. As such, said Prime Minister Taavi Rõivas, it can be considered a success.
"It can be said that this was the most successful summit for Estonia in the past 10 years. We wanted to get a clear political signal that allied presence in our region would increase. We got it," he told ETV.
"We wanted confirmation that prepositioned stocks of equipment for larger units would come. We got that, too."
Commander in Chief Maj. Gen. Riho Terras said that Estonia stands to receive army unit equipment with significant firepower - equipment for one armored division, possibly.
"Estonia has reason to be content. Many things that we have worked for over years and that we have talked about for years received NATO approval today."
The Joint Expeditionary Force to be created with six other countries and led by the UK should have a response time of two to five days to enter combat in any part of the world.