By Pierre Tran
Paris – The Estonian ambassador, Lembit Uibo, pointed up Jan 21 the need for compromise when ordering weapons from European Union nations, the U.S. and other allies, with the key factors being price, quality and delivery time.
There was need for “compromise,” the senior diplomat told the Association des Journalistes de Défense (AJD), a press club, when asked whether the E.U.’s planned multi-billion euro fund for common weapons procurement should be spent on European arms rather than those from the U.S. and other allied nations.
Tallinn was “fully on board” with France, he said, with Paris seeking to spend French taxpayers’ money on weapons built by the European defense industry. But, he added, the reality was Estonia could not get all the military kit it needed “in the short term” in Europe, and could find the weapons built by allies such as the U.S., U.K., Turkey, and South Korea.
There was a policy preference for European-built weapons, but there were three key procurement criteria, namely price, quality, and delivery date, he said.
The diplomat referred to E.U. studies which pointed up an “enormous” annual shortfall of €200 billion ($210 billion) in European military spending, and said Tallinn strongly supported the creation of an E.U. fund of €500 billion for common arms procurement among the 27 member states.
The launch of E.U.-backed €100 billion eurobonds would feature in the proposed funding of procurement, which Tallinn backed along with Paris, he said. That E.U. arms fund was expected to feature in an E.U. defense white paper due in February.
Poland, which holds the rotating presidency of the E.U. council, seeks to forge consensus on the arms funding package by the middle of the year.
Tallinn has long seen Moscow as “potential aggressor” and “a threat to security,” the ambassador said. Estonia planned to spend 3.4 percent of gross domestic product on the military budget in 2025, after previously spending more than two percent.
The perception of Russian naval threat has risen sharply, with the U.K. defense secretary, John Healey, telling Jan. 21 parliament the Royal Navy had been tracking closely what he said was a Russian “spy ship,” the Yantar, as it sailed through British waters the day before. In November, a British attack submarine, reported to be the Astute, unusually surfaced next to the Yantar, to show the ship was being closely tracked, the defense secretary said.
Finland seized Dec. 26 a tanker, the Eagle S, registered in the Cook Islands and carrying Russian oil. The Finnish authorities suspected that ship had deliberately damaged the day before an undersea power cable between Finland and Estonia, and four telecom lines, by dragging its anchor on the Baltic seabed.
Estonia joined the E.U. in 2004, after breaking away from the Soviet Union in 1990 along with partner Baltic nations Latvia and Lithuania. The three Baltic nations are also Nato members, after some 50 years of Russian occupation.
Building Fast
Close ties between Estonia and France would be seen with the French-built Caesar artillery appearing at Estonia’s Feb. 24 independence day parade, with the French armed forces minister, Sébastien Lecournu, due to attend the anniversary parade, the ambassador said.
“He should be there,” lieutenant colonel Alo Valdna, the Estonian defense attaché, said.
There are also close military links between Estonia and the U.K., the ambassador said.
The delivery time for the Caesar was “very short,” he said, referring to the 155 mm, 52 caliber artillery which Estonia had ordered.
Arms builder KNDS France speeded up production of the Caesar after the French authorities called for faster delivery of weapons in response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Estonia, along with Croatia and France, signed a framework agreement last June for a pooled order for the artillery, with each partner nation ordering 12 units. The order was 15 percent funded by the E.U., through the European Defense Industry Reinforcement through Common Procurement Act (EDIRPA).
Armenia also ordered the Caesar, the French defense minister said on a social platform last June, with the AFP news agency reporting Yerevan had ordered 36 of the truck-mounted gun.
Estonia was also buying a fresh stock of the French-built Mistral short-range missile, and the German-built IRIS-T medium-range missile, the diplomat said. Tallinn had yet to decide on a long-range missile.
The Estonian Centre for Defence Investments said Jan. 21 the procurement office had received six U.S.-built M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (Himars), as part of its “strategic partnership with the United States.”
The multiple rocket launchers were due to be shipped to Estonia in the next few months. Tallinn placed the $200 million order two years ago.
In Europe, investment could be made to plug capability gaps in Nato, such as drones, long-range strike, air defense, and ammunition, the ambassador said.
There was need to do more in Europe, and it was urgent, he said, as there was a full scale war in Europe, and the U.S. appeared to be set to turn to Asia.
Meanwhile, oil was the main source of revenue for Moscow, the diplomat said, and the package of energy sanctions announced by the outgoing Joe Biden administration just days before the Jan. 20 inauguration was “better late than never.”
A Western price cap on the energy sector would be a good way of tightening financial screws on Russia, which relied on shipping oil to China and India, he said. Russia drew heavily on a “shadow fleet” of tankers registered offshore.
Another form of financial pressure would be if Western allies seized the €260 billion of Russian assets frozen around the world, as Ukraine needed military aid, the diplomat said.
Anti-Moscow activist Bill Browder, speaking at the World Economic Forum at Davos, called for the Russian assets to be cashed in and spent, to support Ukraine, U.K. daily The Guardian reported Jan. 22. Ukraine’s need for financial support would be all the greater if the new U.S. administration cut off military aid to Kyiv, the report said.
There has previously been talk of seizing the interest due on the frozen Russian assets, but the financial threat may have risen.
The Estonian independence day will also display the Mistral surface-to-air missile and South Korean-built K9 tracked artillery, with the British army unit, the pipes and drums, taking part. The parade marks the 105th anniversary of the Estonia parliamentary republic.
Nato Patrol in the Baltic Sea
There will be a Nato naval mission, dubbed Baltic Sentry, sailing in the Baltic Sea, Lt Col Valdna, said. Estonia and Finland were the key partners, and Germany and the Netherlands have offered ships to patrol waters against ships controlled by Moscow.
The Nato Baltic Sea allies held a Jan. 14 summit due to rising concerns over ships suspected of cutting underwater cable and security infrastructure in those critical waters. The alliance announced the Baltic Sentry mission will include frigates, maritime patrol aircraft, and a small fleet of naval drones.
The French forces will deploy the Croix du Sud, a tripartite countermine ship attached to the Nato TG 441.03 mine warfare unit, part of the standing NATO mine countermeasures group one (SNMCMG1), the French joint chiefs of staff said in response to an enquiry. France will also fly an Atlantique 2 (ATL2) maritime patrol aircraft in that allied Baltic mission.
The timing of deployment was withheld for reasons of operational security, the office said.
Baltic Sentry was a Nato naval surveillance operation intended to deter all threats to underwater and strategic infrastructure, the office said.
Macron Calls for Buy European
“France leads the ‘buy European’ camp, while Sweden and the Netherlands want to open up more to non-E.U. allies,” said a research note, Quick march! Ten steps for a European defence surge, from European Policy Centre, a Brussels-based think tank.
Macron has long argued for a European-first approach in ordering arms, and the arrival of a second term for Trump appeared to have raised the stakes.
The French commander in chief called Jan. 20 in his new year’s speech to the services for a “European preference” in arms procurement, while acknowledging Europe could not always be the champion. The risk lay in being marginalized in all the competitions.
Asked about the new U.S. administration, the Estonian ambassador said, “Estonia is a very, very transatlantic country” in defense and security terms.
“The United States is still the only force capable of deterring Russia,” he said.
The Estonian aim was always to find common ground and hold constructive dialog, reflecting a geopolitical need and a history in defense and security with the U.S.
The Tallinn approach was “let’s go with it day-by-day, let’s see what it brings, let’s not panic, let’s be constructive,” he said.
That approach was not just for Estonia, but also for the European Union, as the U.S. was the biggest market for the E.U., he said.
The E.U. shipped annual exports to the U.S. worth more than €500 billion, while the U.S. sold goods worth €300 billion-€350 billion to the E.U., he said. That marked the “extremely important interaction” between the United States and the E. U., he said, adding he hoped this would be more clearly seen as time went by with the new U.S. administration, President Donald Trump and his advisers.
“We hope that this transatlantic tie will stay strong,” he said.
Trump said Jan. 22 Washington would impose trade tariffs on E.U. exports to the U.S., after media reports pointed up the absence of anti-E.U. measures in his inauguration speech in the Rotunda, just the day before.
When asked which European voice should Trump listen to, the ambassador said Emmanuel Macron, adding the French president had called for a “renaissance” of European capability.
Kaja Kallas, the E.U. high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, was the other European official Trump should listen to, the Estonian diplomat said.
“I also hope that the new high representative of the European Union, Kaja Kallas, will be one of the voices that Mr. Trump will be listening to,” he said.
Kallas said Jan. 22 Russia posed an “existential threat” to Europe, which needed to boost defense spending, Reuters reported. Kallas, an ex-lawyer and former adviser at Estonia’s Vanemuine theatre, was Estonian prime minister before taking up the E.U. post in 2024.
Kallas and the European commissioner for defense and space, Andrius Kubilius of Lithuania, are drafting the E.U. white paper on defense.
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni was the only European head of government at the U.S. inauguration, and she had seen Trump at his Mar-a-Lago private residence a fortnight before he was sworn in as the 47th president.
The ambassador received the journalists at the embassy, housed in a classic Haussmanian building, distinctively redesigned inside. The embassy threw its doors open to the public last year in a cultural open day as part of the Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Estonia’s resistance to Russia appears in the John le Carré spy novel, Smiley’s People, where Vladimir, an Estonian general, played a key role in delivering a Russian spy chief, the Sandman, to the British intelligence service.
Credit graphic: ID 240394650 | Estonian Map © Aleksis15 | Dreamstime.com