Saaremaa and Hiiumaa, the scenic Estonian islands in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea, are looking to the military situation and increased defences in the Swedish island of Gotland and have expressed the will to host a naval base and coastal defence unit, Estonian public broadcaster ERR reports.
«Clearly there’s been talk of establishing a naval base on Saaremaa first and foremost, and this has been discussed for decades already,» Saaremaa municipal mayor Madis Kallas noted. «And we’re emphasizing this first and foremost as well. We’re not ruling out other scenarios either, and NATO is also one possibility — some kind of NATO unit or base on Saaremaa.»
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To the north, in the Hiiu County the municipality is interested in the presence of a coastal defence unit.
Minister acknowledges the need
Estonian Defence Minister Kalle Laanets has said that there is a need to expand the coverage of the defence of Estonia and that serious discussions are underway. «These numbers [of building a naval base in Saaremaa’s Kuresaare] are big enough — last year’s estimate was EUR 90 million on average. But I also won’t rule out that there could be a NATO base there as well some day, which has significantly broader resonance and a broader objective. But these are all topics of debate; we haven’t made any decisions,» Laanets noted, ERR reports.
Estonian islands seeking serious military defence
