Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur stated on Friday that Tallinn and Helsinki are in talks to establish a joint missile defense system.

“We need to combine our coastal defenses. The range of the Estonian and Finnish missiles exceeds the width of the Gulf of Finland. This means that we combine our missile defense system and share all information with each other,” Pevkur told the Finnish newspaper Iltalehti.

He also noted that this prospect will become possible only when Finland joins NATO.

The Estonian minister believed that by integrating the Finnish and Estonian missile defense systems, it will be possible to "close" the Gulf of Finland to Russian warships.

Estonia decided last fall to purchase Blue Spear subsonic anti-ship missiles made in “Israel” with a range of 290 kilometers for coastal defense. 

It is also worth noting that Swedish MTO 85M anti-ship missiles with a range of more than 100 kilometers are used by the Finnish navy (62 miles).

Pevkur was appointed as Estonia's Defense Minister on July 18. He has recently paid a visit to Finland, where he met with his colleague Antti Kaikkonen to discuss defense cooperation.

Finland & Sweden abandoning long-term neutrality

Finland and Sweden started discussing the possibility of abandoning long-term neutrality and joining the alliance amid the Russian military operation in Ukraine.

NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg underlined in early March that the alliance will gladly welcome Finland and Sweden and will provide them with the opportunity to quickly join.

The two countries are expected to file their membership applications together in the coming months.