TALLINN (Sputnik) – Kaljulaid assured NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg at the meeting that Tallinn is devoted to bloc's principles of collective defense.
"At the summit in Warsaw particular attention was devoted to the principles of collective defense. Now all these decisions should be gradually implemented … Powerful containment and implementation of the summit’s decisions is the matter of security for the whole alliance, which is why the NATO security is indivisible. We guarantee security on the eastern NATO borders," Kaljulaid said, as quoted by the presidential office.
Kaljulaid added that Tallinn communicated closely with the states that would sent their servicemen to Estonia next year and intended to provide them with proper conditions.
At the NATO July summit in Warsaw, it was decided that the military alliance would send multinational battalions to Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia and Poland at the request of these countries.
The United Kingdom pledged in October to send additional 800 soldiers to Estonia as well as tanks, drones and armored vehicles. France said in November it would deploy in Estonia 300 military personnel, 5 Leclerc main battle tanks and infantry combat vehicles.
NATO has been boosting its military presence in Europe, particularly in Eastern European states, since the outbreak of the Ukrainian crisis, citing Russia's alleged interference in that conflict as justification for the move.
Moscow has repeatedly stressed that it is not a party to the Ukrainian conflict, and that military expansion toward Russia's borders increases tensions by threatening regional and international security.
