Estonia calls for heightened US presence in Baltic countries

By Leila Nezirevic

LONDON (AA) – Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur has called for the heightened US presence in Baltic countries – Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania – to act as the “deterrent against Russia,” local media reported Wednesday.

The minister’s comments came after he met with the US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin earlier this week.

According to Pevkur, the purpose of the meeting was to discuss bilateral cooperation and the increase of the American footprint in the Baltic country, national broadcaster ERR reported.

The minister revealed that NATO’s overall rise in defense spending was part of the discussion in Washington, D.C. as well as the US’s involvement in helping Ukraine.

Pevkur also met with a member of US Congress Mike Rogers who gave “a very strong assurance that regardless of whether you have Democrats or Republicans in Congress,” the Baltic states will be supported.

“His message was, since he is a Republican himself, that he is trying to impress upon Donald Trump that the US presence in the Baltic states needs to increase, and deterrence towards Russia needs to be strengthened,” the minister said in an interview with the broadcaster.

Pevkur urged the US defense industry to ramp up production, enabling Estonia to buy the munitions it needs using planned government additional tax revenues.

“This is critical, and it was also critical in the negotiations for the new coalition, where we were forced, for instance, to hike taxes, to buy more ammunition. Really the American contribution is quite high,” he added.

The Baltic state plans to invest €1.6 billion ($1.7 billion) for the purchase of ammunition, ERR said.

Pevkur estimated that Estonia will be in a position to buy somewhere between €2.2 billion and €2.3 billion in new ammunition over the next four years.

Estonia's new center-right coalition government was sworn in on Tuesday after now former Prime Minister Kaja Kallas stepped down last week to become the EU’s foreign policy chief.