Estonia: Joint plans for maritime defence with Finland

Estonia and Finland are drawing up joint plans for increased maritime defence, Major General Andrus Merilo, commander of the Estonian Defence Forces (EDF), revealed, ERR reports. Speaking in an interview with Helsingin Sanomat, Merilo said that the goal was to establish specific plans to close the Gulf of Finland to Russian ships if necessary. Earlier, then EDF commander General Martin Herem told LRT that if Russia tried to block the so-called Suwalki gap between Lithuania and Poland, Estonia and Finland could block the Gulf of Finland and thus stop the movement of Russian ships between Saint Petersburg and Kaliningrad. Speaking in an interview with The Baltic Sentinel, Herem suggested that NATO forces could destroy Russian ships from a distance or trap them in their home ports. He noted that Finnish and Swedish membership of NATO was a “game-changer” in the Baltic Sea.