MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 20th November, 2019) NATO remains the guarantor of security in Estonia and other Baltic states, Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas said on Tuesday, commenting on the Interior Ministry's statement regarding the bloc's inability to help the country if needed.
Earlier in October, Interior Minister Mart Helme said during a press conference in Tallinn that NATO was in crisis and there was no guarantee that it would ensure the country's territorial integrity and independence if necessary as the bloc's leading states had their own interests.
"All Estonia's plans aim at developing our independent defense potential and ensuring membership in NATO. The bloc is viable and operates in both military and political sphere in Europe and beyond. I know this well, proceeding from meetings of NATO Heads of State and Government and, for example, from the recent visit to Afghanistan where our military also serve as part of the mission," Ratas wrote on Facebook.
The minister also recalled that the NATO partners had been safeguarding Baltic countries' airspace since 2014 from the Amari air base near Tallinn, while the bloc deployed international battalion-size troops under the UK supervision in Estonia in 2017.
"We are grateful to all our allies for their contribution. Today Estonia's security is clearly guaranteed," he added.
Earlier in November, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with The Economist magazine that the United States was no longer leading NATO, pointing out the bloc's "brain death". He warned EU allies that they could no longer rely on Washington after it had turned its back on them and pulled out of northern Syria, where an international coalition is fighting Islamist militants. In return, German Chancellor Angela Merkel disagreed with Macron's comment, and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg stated that NATO was "strong."
