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Joint Baltic Military Staff to Be Established
The defense forces commanders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have agreed to create a joint military staff in 2013.
The agreement signed by the commanders at a meeting in Lithuania on Friday would also intensify cooperation in major military exercises in coming years. Latvia and Lithuania pledged to join Estonia's plan to contribute to the Nordic Battle Group by 2015.
Officials agreed to continue to promote study opportunities at the Baltic Defense College in NATO and the European Union.
The first Baltic military cooperation project, the Baltic battalion, was initiated in 1993-1994. Other major Baltic defense projects include the airspace monitoring system BALTNET and the Baltic Naval Squadron.
