Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur (Reform) said that the NATO plans are for 20 years and discussions are underway for which capabilities can be replaced with cheaper alternatives, as well as how defense obligations are to be distributed between allies. Pevkur prioritizes ramping up offensive and air defense capacity, while they are also the most expensive fields to develop.

"We are talking about more than 3 percent but less than 5 percent. That is the range in question. What we need to agree is how to spread it out over 20 years," Pevkur said.

"Air defense is among the most expensive capability groups. We are in the process of procuring medium-range air defense, we have solid short-range, or rather ultra short-range, air defense, with a few components between the two, and after which comes ballistic defense," the defense minister said.

Pevkur said that these different air defense components are what NATO needs most, next to lessons learned from the Ukraine war in terms of how many helicopters or drones to use, new intelligence capabilities and which relevant elements to use.

With new capabilities comes the need for new permanent EDF staff. Putting all of these things together quickly adds up to 5 percent of GDP in military spending. But cooling Pevkur's jets is fellow Reform Party member, Minister of Finance Jürgen Ligi.

"It will simply not happen, so it makes little sense to allow such constructions to make headlines. It will not happen in peacetime," Ligi said.

"While everyone would like to spend more, national defense really is a major preference today. However, that does not mean we should get into a bidding war, or who can come up with the highest percentage."

The defense minister has not yet made a concrete proposal for hiking defense spending.

"We could reach 5 percent with the help of allies. We'll need to answer these questions first. If the allies cover a percent or more, Estonia's contribution can be that much smaller," said Minister of the Interior Lauri Läänemets (SDE).

"Defense spending could rise to 5 percent of GDP in the coming years, but in a situation where we need to defend our country, it's crucial these investments get made in the next three years," Läänemets noted.

Eesti 200's Minister of Education Kristina Kallas said that the matter of ammunitions procurements and defense plans is yet to come up in the cabinet.

Final decisions concerning defense are expected in a year.

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