Estonian Foreign Minister Eva-Maria Liimets and her UK counterpart, Dominic Raab, on Thursday pledged to strengthen political and defense cooperation between Tallinn and London as the pair marked the centenary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries.
“Today, we got to look forward on how to expand our already well-established cooperation based on shared values and goals. The themes of our future cooperation are mapped out in our bilateral statement of intent and the accompanying action plan, which was signed today,” Liimets said at a joint press conference in Tallinn, adding that the UK was one of Estonia’s “strongest allies.”
Estonia’s top diplomat also said that she had signed a bilateral agreement with Raab concerning the protection of classified information.
In turn, the UK’s foreign secretary said that the agreements signaled that Estonia and the UK were willing to strengthen their bilateral relations.
“As minister Liimets has said, we’ve signed a statement of intent and I think that signals our mutual desire to continue to build on this close collaboration across all of these areas, to strengthen our friendship even further for the future,” Raab said at the press briefing.
Raab, who is currently on a visit of the Baltic region, also noted that the 850 UK troops currently stationed in Estonia are “not going anywhere.”
UK troops lead NATO’s Enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup in Estonia, which is stationed at the Tapa army base.
