Joint Estonian, Latvian Procured Military Equipment To Begin Arriving In 2023 - Official

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th November, 2022) Military equipment jointly procured by Estonia and Latvia for the needs of the Estonian military will begin arriving in the country by the end of 2023, Erko Sepri, the head of the vehicles and equipment category at the Estonian Center for Defense Investment, said on Friday.

"For the first time, the plan is to agree on the first four years of vehicles at the same time. And we would like them to start arriving in Estonia in the third or fourth quarter of 2023," Sepri said, as quoted by the ERR broadcaster.

In early February, Estonia and Latvia signed a 10-year procurement deal worth 693 million Euros ($717 million). The deal stipulates that the countries will purchase sixteen different types of military vehicles, with Estonia allocating some 410 million euros for this purpose. The deal includes the procurement of SUVs, trucks, cranes, and tow trucks, as well as support vehicles, as some of the vehicles have been in the army since the 1970s.

In the meantime, Estonian Ministry of Defense Secretary General Kusti Salm said on Friday that Tallinn's military aid to Ukraine was approaching 300 million euros.

"Estonia's military aid to Ukraine is starting to approach ��300 million. Thus we remain among the world's top supporters in all kinds of relative terms � whether GDP or military spending," the broadcaster quoted Salm as telling a press conference.

Salm said that the Estonian military's biggest contribution has been focused on training Ukrainian soldiers, adding that Tallinn is planning to "train a rather impressive number of Ukrainian soldiers." He added that the Ukrainian side has been requesting training to rotate units on the front line.