Britain to commit 1,000 extra troops to Nato’s defence of Estonia

Britain will commit an extra 1,000 troops and one of its two new aircraft carriers to the defence of Nato’s eastern flank, the defence secretary has announced at the military alliance’s summit., where Britain already has about 1,700 personnel deployed, but they will be based in the UK, ready to fly out to defend the Baltic country if deemed necessary.

Britain operates two aircraft carriers, the Queen Elizabeth and the Prince of Wales, which have a supporting fleet of ships, known as a carrier strike group. The warships would be committed to Nato on rotation, said Wallace. But Wallace defended the decision, and argued that a surprise attack by Russia on the Baltic country was unlikely. “You are not going to get a massive surprise,” he said, and highlighted that Russia placed more than 100,000 troops on the borders of Ukraine for several months before it invaded in February.

But he added that Russia’s attack on Ukraine had changed everybody’s thinking: “Quite rightly the Baltic states were saying, well, what we just witnessed in Ukraine was that if you wait five days there’s no one left alive. So we don’t want to take the risk and wait until our car ferry gets across with the tanks”.Wallace also tried to play down differences over defence spending with No 10, while indicating he wants budgets to rise at the end of the current spending review period in April 2025.

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