(MENAFN) According to Estonia's defense minister on Friday, Tallinn and Helsinki have considered integrating coastal missile batteries that would allow the two NATO members to blockade the Russian Navy in the Gulf of Finland. The Baltic Sea would then become a "NATO internal sea," the official claimed, repeating prior statements made by the governments of Poland and Lithuania.
“We need to integrate our coastal defenses. The flight range of Estonian and Finnish missiles is greater than the width of the Gulf of Finland,” Estonian Defense Minister, Hanno Pevkur, informed the Finnish source.
The MTO85M coastal missiles from Finland have a range of more than 100 kilometers. The distance from Helsinki to Tallinn across the Gulf is around 82 kilometers. Estonia intends to purchase 300-kilometer-range Israeli Blue Spear missiles later this year.
“The Baltic Sea will be NATO’s internal sea when Finland and Sweden have joined NATO. Compared with what it is today, the situation is changing,” Pevkur stated, highlighting that the two nations will then be able to close the sea to the Russian Navy if need be.
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