Defence Minister Pevkur: Luxembourg’s investment in Estonia’s national defence strengthens NATO’s eastern flank

Luxembourg's Minister of Defence Yuriko Backes visited the Ämari Air Base, as well as the CR14 Foundation, the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence and the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments to learn about joint Estonian-Luxembourg projects for NATO capability and infrastructure development.

On the sidelines of an informal meeting of European defence ministers in Brussels at the beginning of the year, Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur and Luxembourg Defence Minister Yuriko Backes signed an agreement under which Luxembourg would allocate 12 million euros for the reconstruction of the runway at the Ämari Air Base.

"Luxembourg is an outstanding example of NATO's unity and the importance of collective defence, contributing to the successful continuation of NATO's air security mission since December this year, but also to NATO's capacity enhancement in general. With the support of the Luxembourg funding, the runway covering and markings were replaced, the air defence fighter hangar apron and the drainage system were renovated," said Minister of Defence Hanno Pevkur.

"Luxembourg takes our collective security seriously, we recognise the threat that Estonia is facing as a border country. Russia's war against Ukraine clearly shows that we need to reinforce our joint deterrence and defence. Luxembourg is proud to contribute to the common effort by supporting the renovation of Ämari Air Base," said Luxembourg Defence Minister Yuriko Backes during the bilateral meeting of the ministers.

In previous years, Luxembourg supported air security operations at Ämari and the construction of an unmanned aerial vehicle operator training centre at the Nurmsi training base.

"We are grateful to Luxembourg for its strong leadership of the IT Coalition, which was established in September 2023 in support of Ukraine as a joint cooperation initiative and which has already been joined by 15 countries. This is a considerable number of countries and we hope that their contribution will continue," Pevkur added.

In addition to the aforementioned countries, the coalition has been joined by Belgium, Denmark, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Germany, the United Kingdom, Japan, Spain and Finland.

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