Other events in Baltic States

The Estonian Navy’s mine-clearance vessel Sakala departed for the NATO mine-clearance mission during the weekend, writes EPL Online/LETA.

From the beginning of July, the Estonian Navy vessel Sakala is a part of the NATO NRF-13 forces and will on August 1 join the NATO first permanent mine-clearance squadron SNMCG 1, in the framework of which it will carry out mine-clearance operations and training sessions in different locations across the world.

EML Sakala will return to Estonia in the beginning of December and will maintain the NATO NRF readiness until January 5, 2010.

The General Staff of the Estonian Defence Forces reported that as a member of the NRF-13, the vessel needs to be prepared to fulfil military tasks within two days in the location determined by NATO.

Before it was appointed into the NFR-13, Sakala went through an evaluation process applicable for all NATO countries’ navy vessels.