Russia is a threat that forced us to raise defence spending, Estonian foreign minister says
Margus Tsahkna says the country faces an ‘existential’ threat as he urges Beijing to pressure Moscow over the Ukraine war
In an interview with the South China Morning Post on Wednesday, Tsahkna said: “President [Donald] Trump has been very clear that Europe must put skin in the game. Europe must take more responsibility.”
Trump had previously threatened to leave Nato unless other members raised defence spending.
At a summit in The Hague in June, members of the alliance agreed to raise their spending on the military to 5 per cent of gross domestic product by 2035.
Two months earlier, Estonia, one of the smallest Nato member states, passed a €2.8 billion (US$3.2 billion) bill that would see the proportion of GDP spent on the military rise from around 3.4 per cent to 5.4 per cent by 2029.