Estonia backs U.S.' idea to set up intl battalions in Baltic states - Defense Minister Hanso
TALLINN. Jan 15 (Interfax/BNS) - U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs Victoria Nuland's proposal that the allies send their troops to the Baltic states so that an international battalion be set up in each of them agrees with Estonia's wishes, says Estonian Defense Minister Hannes Hanso.
"The U.S. understands challenges to security in our region very well. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland's words reflect exactly what Estonia desires, namely that an international battalion should be deployed here and should regularly conduct exercises together with Estonian servicemen, whose permanent presence for a long time should be formalized by a treaty," Hanso told BNS on Friday.
The Estonian defense minister said Latvia and Lithuania share his opinion. "We have reached agreement with Latvia and Lithuania that ensuring [international forces'] longstanding presence will be our common goal at the NATO summit in Warsaw in summer. It's the first time that we have worded such a common position, and this has happened at Estonia's initiative," Hanso said.
The Estonian government sees stronger presence of allies in the region as a priority and has allotted significant funding for this, he said.
"We are working actively so as to be able to accommodate such a battalion in our country in the near future," he said.
Nuland said earlier in an interview with BNS in Lithuania that the U.S. was calling on its allies to send their troops to the Baltic states, so that an international battalion could be set up in each of them.
Each of the three Baltic states has its own company and a U.S. company, which are ready to work together, and the U.S. suggests that some other ally could join with regular rotations, so that these companies could be joined into a battalion at any particular moment, Nuland said.
The work that has been done over the past two years has ensured strong deterrence, and Russia has not tried to test the allies, except for some testing of their air defense, Nuland said. She called for continuing to work together the same way to make sure that the allies are strong and no one tries to test their strength.
