March 24, 2024 (EIRNS)—The United States Congress on March 22 approved a $228 million security aid package for Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, Estonia’s ERR News reported yesterday. Commenting on the news, Estonian Minister of Defense Hanno Pevkur (Reform) said: “Support from the U.S. has significantly helped Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania fast-track several military infrastructure and capability development projects. The good news is that the support is slightly higher this year than last year. This sends a clear signal that the U.S., the largest NATO ally, is committed to the security and stability of our region,” Pevkur added via a ministry press release.
But according to Mikael Valtersson, former officer of Swedish Armed Forces, and former defense politician and chief of staff with Sweden Democrats, the NATO-ization of the Baltic region, particularly after the admission of Finland and Sweden into the alliance, is actually having the opposite effect. After previously neutral Finland and Sweden joined the alliance, the Baltic Sea in principle became a “NATO sea“‘ with the exception of the two short Russian coastlines, he told Sputnik. Moscow has no other option but to respond to NATO getting closer to its borders by stepping up defenses of its northwestern regions.
“The enlargement of NATO with the admission of Sweden and Finland as members has clearly increased Russian security concerns,” Valtersson explained. “The main problem is the membership of Finland in NATO, since its closeness to the naval facilities at the Kola Peninsula, transportation routes to the Kola Peninsula and St. Petersburg. This must result in a clear Russian strengthening of military forces along the border with Finland. In the long run a number of military systems ought to be deployed. First of all a large amount of air defense, especially long distance, must be deployed to both defend Russian territory but also to greatly reduce NATO capability to use Finnish air space and reduce the usage of air transports over the Baltic Sea to the Baltic states,” the military expert continued.
