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Baltic defense ministers meet on regional security cooperation

Xinhua, December 15, 2016 Adjust font size:

Defense ministers of the three Baltic states met here on Wednesday to discuss defense cooperation within the European Union and the preparations for the acceptance of allied battle groups.

Estonian Minister of Defense Margus Tsahkna, his Latvian and Lithuanian counterparts Raimonds Bergmanis and Raimundas Karoblis tackled on the continuation of projects in regional security and trilateral projects in defense cooperation, as well as the implementation of the decisions of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO)' s Warsaw summit in July, said spokesperson for the Estonian Ministry of Defense.

The Estonian defense minister stressed that Estonia, the lead state of Baltic defense cooperation in 2016, is planning to pay attention to the issue of resources in defense cooperation during his country's EU presidency in the second half of 2017, insisting that European nations make a bigger contribution to defense including cyber defense.

Estonia's National Defence Development Plan for 2017-2026 within the area of government of the Ministry of Defence aims to increase Estonia's defensive military capabilities, raise the combat capability of the Land Forces and bring the Defence Forces to the next level of development.

An investment program was created to direct an additional 60 million euros (about 64 million U.S. dollars) to national defense over the next three years, which will raise defence expenditures to 2.5 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) from the current 2 percent of GDP, according to the Estonian defense minister.

The Latvian defense minister put forward an overview of the objectives for 2017, when Latvia will be the lead state of Baltic defense cooperation, while the joint communique after the meeting called for enhanced cooperation on regional security and defense.

The three defense ministers meet regularly twice a year. Enditem