Estonian diplomat: NATO Ankara summit will focus on defense industry bottlenecks

Estonian diplomat: NATO Ankara summit will focus on defense industry bottlenecks NATO's history is defined by a cycle of crises and adaptations, says Estonian envoy to NATO Jüri Luik. The alliance is currently transitioning toward "NATO 3.0," a strategic return to its original roots of territorial defense. Ambassador Luik said on an ERR broadcast that one of the most dangerous moments in NATO's history was, paradoxically, the end of the Cold War. At that time it seemed the enemy had disappeared and it was time to begin constructive cooperation. A political line then emerged saying NATO should go "out of area or out of business." And that is what happened: Kosovo, Afghanistan. "Now, thanks to the fact that the threat has changed drastically, NATO has taken a completely different direction," Luik noted. "Americans have also said very clearly that they do not support NATO operating outside NATO's area of responsibility. The entire Pentagon‑led "NATO 3.0" program is built on the idea that NATO must return to its roots and focus solely on the core purpose for which it was created in 1949." At the Ankara summit on July 7–8 there will be many topics important to both Americans and Europeans. "Shared interests make it necessary to keep the summit on the right track," Luik said. One of those topics is Europe taking greater responsibility for its defense. A slogan has even been created for it: "Stronger Europe, stronger NATO". "This process is underway. It is not easy, but it is happening, and I would dare say quite constructively, all things considered," Luik said. Another topic is everything related to the defense industry. European countries have poured huge amounts of money into defense, largely thanks to pressure from U.S. President Trump. But the problem arises when you want to buy equipment and are not willing to wait seven or ten years, but want it immediately or within two or three years. The United States has even postponed producing certain missiles for its allies, which reflects that Americans themselves are struggling with this issue. "I believe the profile of the Ankara summit will be the defense industry. Representatives of major arms companies will attend, and there will be a number of decisions related to the industry. Unfortunately, although we have always wished that arms manufacturers and NATO would work together as a unified and smooth process, in reality this is not happening for several reasons. There are many bottlenecks, and efforts are being made to reduce them," Luik noted. Luik noted that European defense badly needs a land‑based deep‑strike capability such as Tomahawk missiles. "To be honest, Americans themselves hardly have this either, because under the Intermediate‑Range Nuclear Forces Treaty, which was only recently canceled, all similar missiles were placed only on ships and aircraft." But Europe itself has almost no deep‑strike capability. Germany's legendary Taurus missile has a range of five hundred to six hundred kilometers. The only country with real deep‑strike capability is Ukraine, which can hit targets 1,000–1,500 kilometers away. "This underlines more and more how dependent we actually are on everything Ukraine has done," Luik said. "Logically, this brings back to the table the question of Ukraine's membership in the European Union and also Ukraine's NATO membership." It was recently announced that the joint German‑French fighter jet project was scrapped because the countries' goals differed. Luik said such joint projects are very difficult. "Of course it would be good if we managed to build an aircraft like the American F‑35, which also has different variants. But there have been other failed projects as well. A long time ago, for example, the Nordic countries' joint helicopter procurement collapsed. The problems were exactly the same — one country needed helicopters capable of flying in the Arctic, while others wanted long‑range helicopters that could fly far over the sea. In the end, they could not put together a joint helicopter project." Right now Europe is trying to build its own deep‑strike missile as a cooperation project among several major countries, and hopefully it will succeed. -- Editor: Argo Ideon Source: ERR interview by Peeter Kaldre