Latvian President Egils Levits speaks to Latvian troops at Adazi Military base in Kadaga, Latvia during a NATO visit in March 2022.
AP Photo/Roman Koksarov
Russia’s neighbors are increasing their defense capabilities in case of an attack.
They say they need to move as fast as possible, which means making moves beyond NATO.
“We’re not only sitting here and waiting for what NATO will do,” Estonia’s defense minister said.
As Russia’s neighbors anxiously watch the invasion of Ukraine, they are moving to bolster their own defenses and come to new agreements beyond the NATO structure as they try to act as fast as possible.
Eastern and Northern European countries — many of which share borders with Russia, have previously been at war with Russia, or once fought for independence from the Soviet Union — have repeatedly warned they must be ready for any attacks, even if they and military experts believe it an unlikely scenario.
Given their proximity to Russia, some countries say preparation must be done as quickly as possible, with defense systems to be beefed up rapidly — something that would require action outside of NATO’s vast structures.
The defense minister of Latvia — a NATO member and Russian neighbor — told Insider in July that he wants to bring back mandatory military service in case of a Russian attack so sudden that NATO cannot respond immediately.
“Even if we are a NATO member country, our first challenge and danger is coming from a very quick attack from Russia,” Artis Pabriks said.
“We have been of course calculating how many forces Russia can gather at our borders within 24 or 48 hours. And knowing that NATO will need a certain time to reflect on that, we must be ready ourselves to defend every inch and every centimeter of our territory.”
‘Ready to fight’
Countries near Russia have also introduced a flurry of policies and agreements responding to Ukraine’s invasion, including a new defense pact between Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, and Iceland; and an agreement between Poland and the Czech Republic to boost their militaries.
Estonia’s defense minister, Hanno Pevkur, told Insider he was happy with the steps NATO is taking, but said of his country and its Baltic neighbors: “We’re not only sitting here and waiting for what NATO will do.”
He said Estonia invested around $800 million this year on defense, with more expected, and that he wants to double the size of the country’s volunteer defense force. Estonia is in conversation with its neighbors, and Pevkur said he hopes for significant new defense agreements that could help deter Russia.
“Estonia has to be ready to fight,” he said.
NATO is stronger than ever
The deals being done are not ones that typically would be done through NATO’s structures anyway, but they are significant as the countries seek to boost their defenses.
Edward R. Arnold, a research fellow for European security at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, told Insider that countries are not snubbing NATO, but instead making agreements in line with what the region needs: “They’re not there to detract from NATO membership in any way, but to address regional security requirements that are quite specific.”
Indeed, support for NATO appears only to have grown.
Sweden and Finland applied to join the alliance, and are expected to be accepted soon, once they reach an agreement with Turkey about some of its conditions.
And members say they want even more support from NATO. Some have for months asked for more NATO troops in their countries, for example. Those numbers are increasing, but not as fast as the nations wanted and not in all that wanted it.
Moving at speed
Indeed, despite that support, some NATO members acknowledge its size means getting things done can be difficult.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told Foreign Policy in March: “Multilateralism is hard: In NATO, we have 30 countries; In the European Union, there are 27, all of them democracies. It takes time.”
To put it simply, Pevkur said: “To talk with someone bilaterally is always easier than talking with 30 counterparts.”
“You have to be flexible to get the results you want,” he added. “When the need is for bilateral level, then you will do it on bilateral level. When the need is for trilateral or multilateral, then you do it like this. When the need is on the NATO level, then you do on the NATO level.”
Arnold, of RUSI, said he doesn’t believe NATO is slow, but said bilateral agreements are typically faster: “The speed of operation is about what you would expect from an organization of that size and complexity.”
For some countries, that speed that comes from smaller agreements is crucial.
As Pabriks, Latvia’s defense minister, put it: “We must be ready ourselves to defend every beach and every centimeter of our territory.”