AFP, Riga :
Russia’s meddling in Ukraine has delivered a wake-up call on defence spending to small Baltic states which spent half a century under Soviet occupation and now fear the Kremlin’s territorial ambitions.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are on heightened alert as Russian military planes and warships skirt their airspace and sea borders on a daily basis in what they call “unprecedented” Russian activity.
NATO said its Baltic air patrol intercepted more than 30 Russian aircraft on Monday alone over the Baltic Sea and off the coast of Norway.
That same day Lithuania put its military on higher alert after 22 Russian warships were spotted in the Baltic Sea, including a heavily-armed corvette within five kilometres (three miles) of Latvia’s sea border.
“The current security situation will stay with us for a long period of time. This is not just bad weather, this is climate change,” Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas said this week.
The Baltics escaped Soviet clutches and regained their independence in 1991, before joining the European Union and NATO in 2004 to cement their Western orientation.
All three have welcomed assurances from their NATO allies that any aggression against them will be regarded as an attack on the Atlantic defence alliance as a whole.
“NATO’s presence in the Baltic region must continue and increase,” Roivas stressed this week in the US, where he was meeting defence companies about future deals.
Russia’s meddling in Ukraine has delivered a wake-up call on defence spending to small Baltic states which spent half a century under Soviet occupation and now fear the Kremlin’s territorial ambitions.
Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are on heightened alert as Russian military planes and warships skirt their airspace and sea borders on a daily basis in what they call “unprecedented” Russian activity.
NATO said its Baltic air patrol intercepted more than 30 Russian aircraft on Monday alone over the Baltic Sea and off the coast of Norway.
That same day Lithuania put its military on higher alert after 22 Russian warships were spotted in the Baltic Sea, including a heavily-armed corvette within five kilometres (three miles) of Latvia’s sea border.
“The current security situation will stay with us for a long period of time. This is not just bad weather, this is climate change,” Estonian Prime Minister Taavi Roivas said this week.
The Baltics escaped Soviet clutches and regained their independence in 1991, before joining the European Union and NATO in 2004 to cement their Western orientation.
All three have welcomed assurances from their NATO allies that any aggression against them will be regarded as an attack on the Atlantic defence alliance as a whole.
“NATO’s presence in the Baltic region must continue and increase,” Roivas stressed this week in the US, where he was meeting defence companies about future deals.
