Chief of the Estonian General Staff visited Finland

Chief of the Defence Command, Lieutenant General Vesa Virtanen and Chief of the Estonian General Staff, Major General Vahur Karus, met in Finland on 2–3 October 2024.

Chiefs of Defence Command of Finland and Estonia meet on an annual basis. The purpose of the meetings is to promote defence cooperation between Finland and Estonia and to discuss current issues. In this meeting, the Chiefs of Staff discussed cooperation both bilaterally and as part of NATO's development. The discussions also addressed the current security situation, including hybrid threats and preparedness for them. Additionally, during the meeting, the capabilities of the Navy and the Coastal Brigade were reviewed. The host of the visit to the Coastal Brigade was the commander of the Coastal Brigade, Captain (Navy) Johan Tillander.

Chief of the Defence Command, Lieutenant General Vesa Virtanen, emphasized the importance of close defence cooperation between Finland and Estonia and a common situational picture:

– I would like to thank Major General Karus for his visit. Estonia is a close partner of Finland. Our deep bilateral cooperation will increase security both for our countries and for NATO. There is much to gain from working together. At the Coastal Brigade, we had good discussions about our capabilities as well as our model of readiness and training the conscripts into capable war-time units.

– I thank Lieutenant General Vesa Virtanen and his team for deep and thoughtful discussions in the area of defence cooperation. I very much value the Finnish Defence Forces openness when sharing their experiences in force generation, training and capability development. We will continue to cooperate to keep both of our nations free and at peace, said Major General Vahur Karus.