Finland and Estonia may create a unified missile defense system

Finland and Estonia are negotiating the creation of a unified missile defense system (ABM), which can close the Gulf of Finland from Russian warships, informed Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur in an interview with the Finnish edition of Iltalehti.

He stated this following the results of negotiations with Finnish Defense Minister Antti Kaikkonen. “We need to unify our coastal defenses. The range of Estonian and Finnish missiles exceeds the width of the Gulf of Finland. This means that we combine our missile defense and share all the information with each other,” Pevkur said.

According to the Minister of Defense of Estonia, after the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO, the Baltic Sea will become inland for the North Atlantic Alliance and this will “change the situation compared to what it is today.”

Pevkur explained that Estonia will develop a new defense plan for itself in the fall of 2022 – early next year, and this plan should be integrated with a similar plan in Finland. “We understand that the Baltic Sea region is a zone of common defense,” he added.

The fact that the Baltic Sea will become an internal “basin” of NATO was announced in July by Polish President Andrzej Duda, he outlined this position at the opening of a meeting of the National Security Council of the republic. He was supported by Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Poland, Minister of National Defense of the Republic Mariusz Blaszczak.

Governor of the Kaliningrad Region Anton Alikhanov in response to the statement of the President of Poland proposed give him a card. “I can even give Duda a card, our Crimea is there,” Alikhanov told RIA Novosti.

Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova notedthat “dreaming is not harmful.” “The Baltic Sea is surrounded not only by the territories of NATO member countries, but also by Russia. By definition, it cannot be considered “internal” for the alliance. The accession of Finland and Sweden to the North Atlantic bloc does not affect this fact in any way, no matter how much they want it in Poland or somewhere else,” she said.