"The key topics in both meetings today were strengthening defense capabilities and defense spending – we support the ambitions of NATO and the U.S. to raise defense expenditure to 5 percent of GDP, and believe that this agreement should be reached among member states at the summit in The Hague," said Pevkur.

"The other side of this decision is, of course, how the allocated defense funds are invested, and here we are of the same mind – a significant portion must be directed towards capability development and done so on an accelerated basis," the minister added.

The meeting with NATO Deputy Secretary General Šekerinska focused primarily on the upcoming NATO Summit.

"For Estonia, it is important that NATO's force capability targets are approved ahead of the summit, and it was good to hear that a corresponding agreement should be formalized already at the next meeting of NATO defense ministers at the beginning of June," Pevkur said.

"The new U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker echoed the same message we heard during last week's visit to Washington – the U.S. highly values Estonia's efforts to strengthen both its own and NATO's overall defense capabilities, and remains a strong ally to Estonia," the Estonian foreign minister added.

On Saturday morning at 10 a.m., Pevkur will take part in a panel on Baltic Sea security at the Lennart Meri Conference,. The discussion will also be streamed online here.

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