Baltic defense ministers: Efforts to host allied battle groups going as planned
The ministers of defense of the Baltic countries stated at their meeting in Tallinn on Wednesday that the preparations for the acceptance of allied battle groups were going as planned.
Defense ministers Margus Tsahkna (IRL) of Estonia, Raimonds Bergmanis of Latvia, and Raimundas Karoblis of Lithuania discussed defense cooperation within the European Union, the implementation of the decisions of NATO’s Warsaw summit, and matters related to the hosting of NATO battle groups, spokespeople for the Estonian Ministry of Defense said on Wednesday.
“During our EU presidency, we are planning to pay attention to the issue of resources in defense cooperation. European nations must make a bigger contribution to defense,” Tsahkna said. “Estonia stands up for the unity of Europe, the training exercises in the field of cyber defense to be held during our presidency, which will be targeted at decision makers, will definitely contribute to this.”
The ministers also spoke about the continuation of projects in regional security as well as trilateral projects in defense cooperation.
The Latvian defense minister offered an overview of the objectives for 2017, when Latvia will be the lead state of Baltic defense cooperation.
The three defense ministers signed a joint communiqué after the meeting.
Estonia is the lead state of Baltic defense cooperation in 2016. The defense ministers of the three countries meet in this format regularly twice a year.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn
Source: BNS
