Defense chief: Cooperation among NATO eastern flank nations critical
During a meeting with colleagues from the Baltics, the Visegrád countries and Ukraine, Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces Gen. Riho Terras stressed the imortance of cooperation among countries located along NATO's eastern flank.
"Close defense cooperation among the three Baltic countries and the four Visegrád countries is critical in the present security situation for the defense of the entire alliance, an important part of which are the NATO battle groups deployed to Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania that can be integrated into the defense forces of these countries," Terras was quoted by Estonian Defence Forces (EDF) spokespeople as saying.
"Ensuring the security of the members of the alliance cannot happen in a vacuum by cooperating with one another alone, therefore we decided at the meeting to continue supporting Ukraine in the future as well," he continued.
Representatives of the defense forces of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovakia and Ukraine took part in the meeting held in Krakow, Poland.
NATO battle groups intended to strengthen the security of the alliance have been deployed to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland since early this year. Hungary, one of the countries of the Visegrád group, will send an infantry company to train in Estonia this summer.
Estonia has supported Ukraine with training in military and disaster medicine as well as by helping train Ukrainian defense forces personnel in Ukraine.
Editor: Aili Vahtla
Source: BNS
