Other events in Baltic States

The Baltic States should seek closer defence cooperation, and Lithuania could pull the effots of the Baltic States in developing the joint projects on air forces, special operation forces and energy security, the Lithuanian national defence minister proposed at a meeting with her Estonian and Latvian counterparts, writes LETA/ELTA.

On December 16-17, National Defence Minister Rasa Jukneviciene met with her Estonian and Latvian counterparts Jaak Aaviksoo and Artis Pabriks in Tartu on December 16-17 to discuss defence cooperation among the Baltic States, relevant issues of NATO and regional cooperation with the Nordic countries.

Speaking about the Baltic cooperation, Minister Jukneviciene said that the cooperation should move into a new phase – the Baltic defence integration, i.e. the countries should seek even greater defence cooperation to ensure the visibility of joint activities and benefits of other joint projects, the National Defence Ministry says in a statement.

According to Jukneviciene, each Baltic country should specialize in certain areas where it has most experience. For example, Lithuania could focus the efforts of the Baltic States to work together in developing joint air forces, special operations forces and energy security projects.

During the meeting, the ministers also stressed the need to continue to develop and strengthen cooperation with the Nordic countries. Jukneviciene particularly emphasized the importance of the participation in the European Union battle group and the Baltic Defence College, the organization of joint regional exercises, cooperation in special operations forces, the statement said.

Speaking about the NATO air policing mission, the ministers stressed that it is a very important and successful mission in the Baltic countries, which should also be developed in the future. The ministers discussed the possibilities of improving the conditions for the NATO contingents in the Baltic air space to ensure that this mission would involve more and more NATO countries.

On Thursday, during a working dinner, the ministers discussed the results of the recent NATO summit in Lisbon which approved the new NATO strategic concept.

On Friday, the ministers will sign a joint communique of the meeting and participate in the event of the change of the commandant of the Baltic Defence College and the strategic-level course graduation ceremony.