In Karis’ interview with the Ukrainian edition of Forbes magazine, the interviewer said that Ukrainians, who have been at war with Russia for two and a half years, are annoyed by the word “escalation” used by many Western leaders, and asked if Karis had heard the word from many Western leaders trying to persuade to be more decisive in supporting Ukraine, reports the Estonian newspaper “Postimess”.
“What does escalation mean? The only escalation we can talk about is nuclear escalation. Other actions are not escalation. The supply of weapons, helping Ukraine, is constantly increasing, so there are no such “red lines”. I am sure that Russia does not intend to use nuclear weapons,” Karis said.
According to the Estonian president, aggressive Russia is a problem not only for Estonia, which shares a border with Russia, but it should also be borne in mind that the whole of Europe is in Russia’s neighborhood.
“That means we all have to be ready,” Karis said, adding that NATO has defense plans in place.
“We have airspace patrolling. There are various NATO member states in Estonia [karavīri]which holds military exercises and so on. That’s how NATO works,” said the Estonian president.
He said that it does not matter how many allied soldiers are in Estonia at a given moment.
“We have an agreement with Great Britain that they will come when necessary. But we have to prepare ourselves. Estonia spends 3.4% of its gross domestic product (GDP) on defense. We are increasing our military capabilities,” said Karis.
Moreover, according to the Estonian president, the most important thing is not even how much money is allocated for national defense.
“Before the Second World War, Estonia allocated more than 20% of its GDP to defense, but the Soviet Union occupied us. The reason is very simple – we had no friends then. But now we are a member of NATO and the European Union. That’s a big difference,” he added. .
2024-09-17 02:55:39