Estonian defmin invites Poland to join Center of Excellence in Cyber Defense

During a meeting with Poland's Defense Minister Bogdan Klich, who was paying a one-day working visit to Estonia, matters related to Baltic air policing, NATO's collective missile defense, cyber security, EU battle groups, bilateral cooperation and the joint Baltic defense college were talked about, spokespeople for the Estonian Defense Ministry said.

Aaviksoo observed that the views of the two countries in defense policy were very close and possible threats were perceived in quite the same manner.

Estonia highly appreciates Poland's contribution to Baltic air policing from both the political as well as the defense aspect, he said.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania are about to start discussions with a view to controlling their air space from the year 2018 onwards, Aaviksoo said. While it is too early to speak of specific solutions, Polish participation in the arrangement is not ruled out, he said.

Klich reaffirmed Poland's great interest toward bilateral defense cooperation. He said the air policing arrangement has created a strong bond between the countries and this deserves to be developed.

As regards the missile defense platform planned to be set up in Europe, Estonia considers it important that the system be developed on the basis of the NATO principle of collective defense. Estonia views the present developments as positive and wishes that the system would make up a substantial part of the capability to defend all NATO countries against potential threats, Aaviksoo said.

Aaviksoo offered an overview of the preparations to set up a NATO Center of Excellence in Cyber Defense in Estonia and invited his Polish colleague to join the project.

Klich said Poland was very interested both in Estonia's experience as regards fending off cyber attacks as well as proposals concerning the development of corresponding capabilities of the defense forces.

The defense ministers found the EU battle groups to be important from the point of view of the union's common security and defense policy, stating however that the principles for their engagement had to be stipulated more clearly.

Klich made a proposal concerning cooperation between the joint Baltic defense college and military training institutions in Poland.

Klich was scheduled to meet during his stay here also with the chairman of the Estonian parliament's foreign affairs committee, Sven Mikser, and secretary general of the Estonian Foreign Ministry Matti Maasikas. Besides, the agenda of his trip included a visit to the Center of Excellence in Cyber Defense.

Also on Friday, Poland took over from Norway the task of policing the Baltic air space. Using MiG-29 fighter jets, Poland is assuming the task for the second time. It performed the mission for the first time in 2006.