On Friday, the National Defence Committee of the Riigikogu met with the members of the Defence Committee of the Parliament of Finland and the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence of Finland Arto Räty in Helsinki.

At the meeting with the Chairman of the Defence Committee of the Parliament of Finland Jussi Niinistö and the members of the Committee, the defence cooperation of Estonia and Finland and the current situation of the reform of Finnish defence forces were spoken about. At the meeting with the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry of Defence of Finland Arto Räty, the international defence cooperation, including the cooperation with NATO, was discussed.

The operation that took place in the territorial waters of Sweden last week was also spoken about.

“On this side as well as on the other side of the Baltic Sea, we naturally must draw our conclusions about our capabilities – both the existing capabilities and our needs – for dealing with such incidents,” the Chairman of the National Defence Committee of the Riigikogu Mati Raidma said. “However, with our Finnish colleagues we admitted the need to enhance our mutual cooperation in order to get an overview of what is going on under and above the water in the Baltic Sea,” he added.

Chairman of the National Defence Committee of the Riigikogu Mati Raidma, Deputy Chairman of the Committee Aivar Riisalu and Member of the Committee Tõnu Juul took part in the meetings. The annual meetings of the defence committees of both parliaments have been taking place since 1993 alternately in Estonia and Finland.