Baltic countries must find best solution for air policing - Estonian minister

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Photo: Leedu kaitseministeerium

Estonian Defense Minister Urmas Reinsalu said after a meeting with his Lithuanian counterpart Juozas Olekas on Tuesday that the Baltic countries must find the best solution for air policing among themselves and that the agreement will be made when the time is ripe.

"Our mutual understanding is that between the Baltic partners we will find a solution which is the best and the most functional," Reinsalu told journalists in the Lithuanian capital.

"First of all, air policing itself will last forever, NATO will last and also what we made in Chicago summit was actually a decision that it will last eternally. Concerning the decision about the air policing rotation, decisions will be made when the time is right and the decisions will be the best. If the essence of the agreement is made, then the time will be right," the Estonian defense minister said when asked when a decision about the air policing mission's rotation could be made.

Olekas admitted that the parties' points of view on the subject differed. He added that the next meeting of Baltic defense ministers, which should touch upon the issue of the mission's rotation, will take place in the fall.

"We exchanged opinions as regards our participation in joint training events and the successful air policing mission, which we also have different points of view on. But we see that we'll find the best solutions through joint discussions," the Lithuanian minister told journalists.

Estonia wants the air policing mission to start rotating its base in 2015, switching between the current base near Siauliai in Lithuania and the Estonian base of Amari.

Meanwhile, Lithuania wants its air force base to keep its status as the main and permanent place of deployment, saying that the rotation arrangement would pull up costs considerably.

Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said during a meeting with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Rome in February that Estonia wishes to see one rotation of the NATO air policing mission each year operate out of the Amari air base from 2015 onwards.

During his visit to Lithuania in February, NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said that NATO will not interfere with the topic where the allied air force components performing the Baltic air policing mission will be based. "It is for the Baltic states to decide how to organize that part of the air policing," he said.

Since the Baltic countries do not have air policing assets of their own, the function of rapid response air forces has been carried out in turns by the air forces of other NATO allies.

In February 2012 the North Atlantic Council adopted a resolution extending NATO air policing mission indefinitely.

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