"My opinion is mixed. A military airport in Estonia would not be bad for the security of the Baltic states," Pocius said in an interview to 15min.
"However, the discussions now focus on smart defense. If we're talking about smart investing of money and rallying of efforts and finances of a few countries, we should do some good thinking. Is there a meaning in doubling technical services and various projects?," he asked.
Estonia has announced its plans to propose that its new Amari aviation base would host one of the three annual air-policing shifts. The base should be operational in 2015.
The Alliance decided in February that the mission would be continued after 2014 – ambassadors officially confirmed in Brussels that it would be a long-term mission with regular revisions, while the Baltic states committed themselves to increasing their contributions. The document adopted in Brussels is confidential, however, according to information available to BNS, the next review is scheduled after 2018.
NATO has been guarding the air-space of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia since their accession to NATO in 2004, as the three countries have no suitable military capacities.
Currently, the air-policing mission is performed by Polish aviators.
2012 05 11
Lithuanian chief of defense doubts need to rotate Baltic air-policing mission
Lithuania's Chief of Defense Lieutenant General Arvydas Pocius has expressed doubts in the sense of rotating NATO's Baltic air-policing mission, which is currently conducted form an aviation base in Šiauliai, northern Lithuania.
Arvydas Pocius / Alfredo Pliadžio nuotr.
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