At their summit in the Turkish capital, Ankara, NATO leaders decided to turn the alliance’s rotating Baltic Air Policing mission into an air defence mission, ERR reported. The change will allow NATO fighter aircraft to respond more rapidly to threats in Baltic airspace. NATO’s air operations centre in Uedem, Germany, will have authority to decide on actions, unless national restrictions apply. Baltic officials have accused Russia of deliberately redirecting Ukrainian drones towards neighbouring NATO countries, BNS reports. NATO fighters based at air bases in Estonia’s Ämari and Lithuania’s Siauliai have patrolled Baltic airspace since 2004. Latvia’s Lielvarde air base has served as a reserve base for the mission since 2024, LSM reports. Meanwhile, NATO has failed to maintain a rotational deployment of air defence systems in the Baltic States as agreed at the NATO summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, in 2023, LRT reported. According to experts, alliance members lack sufficient air defence systems.
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