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00:00What is Vladimir Putin up to? Why did he fly into your airspace? Yes, indeed. We have had several very brutal violations of Estonia, but also the NATO airspace. And I think that Putin is playing with fire because NATO responded in a very solid and adequate ways. This time we escalated this three fighters, all from Estonia. I'm going to space, but as well, the Polish prime minister and also foreign minister today in the Security Council meeting said that Putin is playing as a supplier. And next time, if we see the immediate threats to our territory or to us, it can be different. So Putin is trying to escalate and also trying to test our unity and capabilities, but he's failing normally. Minister to Sana. What have we learned in the Article four review? Didn't act as designed. Article four is an opportunity for the Member States to call all the ATO to political consultations. And we have called Article four as well. This time tomorrow. That will be the gathering of NATO Council. And of course, the first thing is to show the unity amongst the NATO member states, because Putin wants to test especially the unity between Europe and US. But we are uniting. And the second thing, what we are expecting as well is more practical decisions, because after the attack against Poland, just a couple of days before Article four was called and NATO mission was established. This is Eastern centric mission and this is in the middle of the military planning. So what we do expect is as well to increase the military capabilities in our eastern flank, because we are taking the first response as the Baltics of Finland and Poland. We should note for our listeners and viewers, the minister is joining us from the U.N. in New York, which is why he's outdoors. And you're hearing helicopters, Minister. We're very familiar with the history involving Estonia and Russia, of course, the former Soviet Union. If you're of an old enough age, and I know that there are many in your country who still remember the invasion and the occupation, the annexation by the Soviet Union in 1940. Fast forward to 2025. Does Estonia feel secure as a frontline country in the NATO's alliance? Yes, of course. We remember how it was to be occupied 50 years and we lost every fifth Estonian by killings, the partitions and actually everything happened exactly the same way. What we saw now in Ukraine, in occupied territories. So we are very clear that we have never will never recognize any kind of de facto or the euro occupations because we know the price. But now we decided after the regaining independence in 1981, two things. First, we definitely will fight back if the aggression is coming. We didn't do it in 1940. And the second thing that we will never be alone again. And this is exactly what we see as a member of NATO, as a member of European Union as well. Today in United Nations, we got lots of support and and is standing by different countries globally because the territorial integrity principle is important not for for Europe and the neighboring countries, for Russia, but also globally. So if you ask me how we feel, we know Russians well. We have been living there thousands of years and we know what what may come, but we are prepared. I was defense minister of Estonia in 2000, 16, 17, and then we saw 120,000 troops ready to go within 48 hours, the other side of the border. But we didn't have such a scale of native troops as well, U.S. troops in our territories. And now these troops are sent to Ukraine in their literal death. So Russia has not full scale capabilities to invade Europe militarily. They are stuck in Ukraine. They are not successful there, but they are testing us. But we feel safe, safer than ever before. Estonia is one of the highest paying natto members on defense spending 5.4% of GDP. Where do you prioritize that money? Is it air defense? Indeed, Estonia is increasing from the next year our defence budget up to more than 5%. We have increased this already. Yes. So this year was more than 3%. But all these investments, they are based on the NATO regional defense plans. What we adopted already two years ago during the Vilnius NATO's summit and the changes actually the concept that we don't let Russia into our territories. So we will be ready to hit to very deep to Russia to eliminate the military objects and the support for the aggression against NATO's. So what we invest in is, of course, deep strength capabilities, the drills, capabilities, everything. What we see as well that Russia is using in Ukraine and Ukraine is very successful using the new level of defense capabilities. But of course, we need air defense. We need this traditional level of capabilities, but mostly as well, we need NATO's unity and NATO troops integrated to our military. So that's why we are working heavily and and increasingly investing to defense spendings. But I am happy as well that finally all the NATO members accepted this 5% goal, even for the next two years. But we see that Europe is paying a lot more and investing heavily. We could do it like ten years ago. I think it was a correct and right time, but it's a good thing that we are doing now. Minister, how concerned are you around the Pentagon cutting funding for the Baltic Security Initiative? Can you and your partners in Eastern Europe make up the difference? Yes, of course we are concerned, but we are working with Congress and explaining as well that every dollar that U.S. investing to politic defense, all this money goes back to US economy. And we are adding as well for $1 $12 from our side. So it's a good deal for us as well. From the last period actually bought Hyman's systems. So we do hope that the Congress will consider that the opportunities for their military investments to the Baltic region, as well as continuously in the future, because we need this kind of support. But of course, as I mentioned before as well, we are heavily increasing our own defense investments. But these U.S. programs for supporting Baltic states military level as well, which is very useful for US economy and also strengthening our ties between each other. Minister, are you confident that President Trump has your security interests front of mind? I'm absolutely convinced that President Trump is keeping his word. He's repeatedly said as well publicly in The Hague that the US and he will be committed to NATO's Article five. So every day work what we do together with U.S. on military level, on a political level. This report is very clear. And today as well, in the United Nations Security Council, the U.S. ambassador was very clear that the U.S. will protect Estonia, the Baltic states, the region. U.S. will be committed to NATO's Article five. So I have no reasons to to think the other way around.

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Estonia’s Tsahkna: Putin Failing at Testing NATO Unity