Estonia, Financial Services, Latvia, Legislation, Security

He pointed out that Estonian spends more than 2% of GDP on defense, which is one of the conditions set-out by NATO. However, Ilves did not claim that Latvia and Lithuania, who spend less on defense, have become a threat to Baltic security. ''But, they are more vulnerable,'' he said.

Asked whether the Baltics are seen from the outside as united, Ilves said that he is annoyed when someone speaks in the name of the whole Baltics. He believes that each country must speak about itself, instead of offering a personal opinion about all three. Ilves also believes that not always do the opinions need to be united, and added that the Baltics do not have common positions and he doubts whether they ever will.

At the same time, Ilves also pointed out that the Baltics expect a bit too much from NATO by asking for more than they themselves contribute to the alliance. ''In order to accommodate allied soldiers, they conditions and infrastructure to accommodate them must be in place. Due to this, we will be spending more than the required two% of GDP this year to construct modern barracks. We must be able to accommodate allied soldiers,'' he said.

At the end of the interview, asked about Baltic cooperation, Ilves said that cooperation is not just expressing and signing joint declarations, but actual contributions. ''But if you do not want to pay for this, than this just becomes singing about Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. This is not cooperation, but just feeling good together. Cooperation requires money, time and energy. It also needs persons working on this cooperation,'' the Estonian president added.