Ahead of the opening of the Lennart Meri Conference today, Minister of Defence Hanno Pevkur met with NATO Deputy Secretary General Radmila Shekerinska and U.S. Ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker to discuss the security situation and preparations for the upcoming NATO Summit in The Hague.
"The key topics in both meetings today were strengthening defence capabilities and defence spending – we support the ambitions of NATO and the U.S. to raise defence expenditure to 5% of GDP, and believe that this agreement should be reached among member states at the summit in The Hague. The other side of this decision is, of course, how the allocated defence funds are invested, and here we are of the same mind – a significant portion must be directed towards capability development and done so on an accelerated basis," said Minister of Defence Hanno Pevkur following the meetings.
The meeting with NATO Deputy Secretary General Šekerinska focused primarily on the upcoming NATO Summit. "For Estonia, it is important that NATO’s force capability targets are approved ahead of the summit, and it was good to hear that a corresponding agreement should be formalised already at the next meeting of NATO Defence Ministers at the beginning of June," noted Minister Pevkur.
"The new U.S. Ambassador to NATO, Matthew Whitaker, echoed the same message we heard during last week’s visit to Washington – the U.S. highly values Estonia’s efforts to strengthen both its own and NATO’s overall defence capabilities, and remains a strong ally to Estonia," said Minister Pevkur.
On Saturday at 10:00, Minister Pevkur will take part in a panel on Baltic Sea security at the Lennart Meri Conference, which will also be streamed online: (1) Baltic Sea Security: Shadow Fleet in Shallow Waters · Lennart Meri Conference 2025 - YouTube.
On Saturday, Minister Pevkur and Commander of the Estonian Defence Forces Major General Andrus Merilo will meet with Commander of the Dutch Armed Forces General Onno Eichelsheim.
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Photos: Kaitseministeerium | Flickr