21 January (BNS)

Commander of the Swedish Defence Forces, Gen. Sverker Goranson, on Friday delivered a formal invitation to the defence chiefs of the Baltic countries on behalf of their Nordic colleagues to join the Nordic defence co-operation framework NORDEFCO. Under the framework initiated by the Nordic defence ministers in 2009, Sweden, Norway, Finland, Denmark and Iceland engage in military co-operation in strategy, capability development, external operations, training and exercises, military spokespeople in Tallinn said.

In the words of the chairman of NORDEFCO, Gen. Sverker Goranson, the Nordic countries are interested in a stable security situation in the Baltic Sea region. For Estonia it will be possible to start concrete military co-operation either bilaterally or more broadly, depending on the area of co-operation, possibilities, and the interests of individual countries, the Swedish defence chief said.

"The meeting of the commanders of the defence forces of the Nordic countries, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania was held qualitatively at a completely new level. We received an invitation
to deepen defence co-operation and spoke in depth about new topics," the commander of the defence forces of Estonia, Lt. Gen. Ants Laaneots, said. "We are linked with the Nordic countries by the cultural space, we are linked by common history, we understand each other well, our mentality is similar because we share the same values. It is our vital interest that the security situation of the countries of the Baltic Sea region continues to be among the safest in the world," he said.

The co-operation framework calls for long-term military co-operation in developing and co-ordinating military capabilities, joint exercises, developing a common training structure and training institutions, and joint procurements supporting external operations.

As the first thing within the co-operation framework, Estonia will start integrating with the Nordic countries' distance learning system and will develop together with other countries the arrangement for supporting Defence Forces personnel who have taken part in foreign missions.

Presently the most important example of co-operation with the Nordic countries for the Estonian Defence Forces is the EU's Nordic Battle Group, whose members aside from Estonia are Sweden, Norway, Finland and Ireland. Many Estonian officers and NCOs have received training in Finland, Sweden and Denmark. Just like the Nordic countries, Estonia is using Sisu armoured personnel carriers of Finnish origin, and many European countries have the Swedish-made Carl Gustaf anti-tank system in their armaments.

The defence commanders of Finland, Sweden, Norway, Iceland, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia met in Tallinn on Thursday and Friday. They spoke about matters of regional security and co-operation, training opportunities, foreign missions, and experiences related to supporting former mission personnel.