Luik, Supreme Allied Commander Europe talk NATO defense readiness
Minister of Defence Jüri Luik (Isamaa) and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe (SACEUR) Gen. Tod D. Walters met at Baltic Defence College in Tartu on Tuesday, where the two discussed the alliance's collective deterrence and defense posture in the Baltic region as well as NATO's defense readiness.
Luik thanked Wolters for strengthening NATO's defense readiness and emphasized the importance of allied presence in Estonia in terms of ensuring military readiness and the role of NATO's training exercises, the Ministry of Defence said in a press release.
"From our point of view, it is very important that we train in the way that we actually fight," he noted. "For our part, we are ready to do whatever is necessary in order to further improve the quality of training exercises and enhance Estonia's defense activities."
The defense minister emphasized that Estonia supports NATO's position of addressing all military threats originating from land, sea and air, both across the Euro-Atlantic as well as the Baltic states.
Wolters and Luik also agreed that, in addition to NATO training exercises, allied countries could demonstrate their readiness via other cooperation formats, an excellent example of which was Baltic Protector, an exercise which took place over the summer within the framework of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) and included several countries.
Wolters took over as SACEUR this May.
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Editor: Aili Vahtla
