Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu said Estonia would like to see Europe double their defence budgets
Estonia has announced that all 27 countries in the European Union should increase their military spending due to the war in Ukraine. According to a report by the Reuters on Tuesday, November 29, Urmas Reinsalu, Estonia´s Foreign Minister, made this comment during an interview during his visit in Kyie.
Reinsalu said, “We would like to see European countries doubling their defence expenditure in the time of the Ukrainian war and after the war, and we are going to spend 3% of our GDP on national defence”. The foreign minister according to the report also said that all EU countries also need to need to increase their aid budgets for military support to Ukraine.
“The European Union combined has supported around 0.2% of its GDP to military assistance to Ukraine and I made a pledge if we could reach 1% it would make a grand difference on the ground in changing the course of the war,” he said in the report.
Reinsalu was accompanied with foreign ministers from six other countries who were in Ukraine to show their support as the country struggles with the war.
Meanwhile, the report adds, Jens Stoltenberg NATO Secretary-General said in a statement last week, all NATO countries may increase their defence budgets from the present 2% of their national budgets.
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