“Russia’s strategic objectives have remained unchanged. The aggression of our neighbour to the east threatens all of the countries around it, including in Europe and NATO. To ensure that Estonia is securely protected, we need to adapt quickly to the increasingly dangerous security environment and sharply increase the country’s defence budget,” said Prime Minister Kristen Michal. “Our goal is to make Russian military aggression against Estonia unfeasible. To this end, we will raise defence spending to at least 5% of the GDP.”
Minister of Defence Hanno Pevkur noted that in terms of Estonia’s defence capabilities, today is a historic day. “A fundamental decision like this to increase defence spending has never been taken before. The defence budget leaping from three to five per cent of the GDP in one year is a crucial step for the Estonian state and people, to ensure that Estonia is securely protected,” he said.
The government’s decision in principle to sharply increase the country’s defence spending is based on military advice from the Commander of the Defence Forces, which has been combined into the supplementary defence investment programme (KILP).
This includes the development of Estonia’s military capabilities, and the Ministry of Defence will be working with the Ministry of Finance to develop a financing plan for the rapid implementation thereof. The government will discuss the plan in early April.
According to the minister of defence, the defence investments in capability development will cover all of the key areas of military defence: air defence, development of deep-strike capabilities, numerous lessons learned from the Ukrainian war, such as drone warfare and electronic warfare capabilities, and much more. “Our task is to make these developments as quickly as possible. We need to get used to the idea that defence spending will remain at 5% of the GDP for a long time and will rise above that in the coming years.”
The additional funding for defence capabilities is possible thanks to the European Council’s endorsement of the rapid progress on the European rearmament plan. The plan aims to raise up to 800 billion euros to boost Europe’s defence capabilities.
