Military power of Estonia & NATO

Estonia is a country located in Eastern Europe, bordering the Baltic Sea and Gulf of Finland, between Latvia and Russia, with an area of 45,335 km² (land boundries: 657 km and costline 3,794 km). The capital of Estonia is Tallinn. The number of inhabitants is 1,373,101.

The Republic of Estonia is a member of NATO since 2004. Estonia has hosted (since 2017) a UK-led multinational NATO ground force battlegroup as part of the Alliance’s Enhanced Forward Presence initiative. NATO has provided airspace protection for Estonia through its Baltic Air Policing mission. Estonia is a member of the UK-led Joint Expeditionary Force, a pool of high-readiness military forces from 10 Baltic and Scandinavian countries. The Estonian military has a mix of equipment from European suppliers, as well as Israel, South Korea, Turkey, and the United States.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (North Atlantic Alliance) is an intergovernmental military alliance which was signed in Washington on 4 April 1949. NATO is a system of collective security: its independent member states agree to defend each other against attacks by others countries. NATO's main headquarters are located in Brussels. The following twelve states signed the treaty and became the founding members: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, United Kingdom and United States. The following states joined the treaty after 1949: Greece, Germany, Turkey and Spain. Members who joined after the dissolution of the Soviet Union: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Montenegro and North Macedonia.

Before and during the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, several NATO countries sent army to reinforce the alliance's eastern flank. Alliance had deployed 40,000 troops along its 2,500 kilometres long Eastern flank to deter possible Russian aggression. On 5 July the North Atlantic Alliance members signed off on the accession protocols for Sweden and Finland and formally approved the decisions of the NATO summit.

Finland joined the alliance on 4 April 2023.