Yesterday evening in Tallinn at their first meeting, Estonian Minister of Defence Hanno Pevkur and the Finnish Minister of Defence Antti Häkkänen discussed bilateral defence cooperation, regional security, expectations at the NATO Summit in Vilnius, aid to Ukraine and supporting the EU’s defence development.
“As good neighbours, defence cooperation between Estonia and Finland has been close through the years, however, the Finnish accession to NATO in April gave new opportunities to develop it even further. As close neighbours and NATO border states, we have a common understanding of the threats around us. This is why both Estonia and Finland consider it important to both develop our own defence capabilities, as well as cooperate on defence,” said Minister of Defence Hanno Pevkur.
“For example, at the moment we are taking steps with Finland towards better information exchange, both for maritime security as well as other areas that will improve the security of both states,” said Pevkur. “I’m happy to see that on defence policy we are on the same wavelength with Finland, and that is a good basis for developing defence cooperation further,” noted Minister of Defence Pevkur.
Bilateral defence cooperation between Estonia and Finland began in the 1990s, when Finland strongly supported Estonia through counselling programmes and training for Estonian officers. This gave a strong impetus to developing Estonia’s defence capabilities, especially what concerns the modern conscription and reserve system. In recent years, cooperation has been closest in the areas of training and joint procurements. Most recently, Estonia and Finland jointly procured the South-Korean self-propelled Howitzers K9.
Minister of Defence of Finland Antti Häkkänen has been in office since 20 June and belongs to the party Kokoomus. Before his current mandate, Häkkänen was the chairman of the parliamentary defence committee and from 2017 to 2019 served as the Minister of Justice. This was Häkkänen’s visit abroad as a minister of defence, with stops first in Sweden and then in Estonia.
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Photo: Kaitseminister Pevkur ja Soome kaitseminister Antti Häkkän… | Flickr