Prime Minister Ratas and the Secretary General of NATO discussed the incident in the airspace of Estonia

Stenbock House, 8 August 2018 – Prime Minister Jüri Ratas and Jens Stoltenberg, the Secretary General of NATO, discussed in a telephone conversation the incident that occurred in the airspace of Estonia yesterday, where an air-to-air missile was accidentally launched.

"I told the secretary general of NATO that it is a serious incident and we are understandably concerned about this in Estonia. Thank God that as far as we know, no one was hurt as a result of the incident," said Ratas.

"I asked Jens Stoltenberg to take yesterday's incident very seriously and promptly identify the circumstances. There is no doubt that Estonian authorities contribute to it in every possible way. The Secretary General confirmed that all allies including those involved in the air policing will do the same. The air policing mission of NATO is an important part of ensuring the security of Estonia and the whole alliance," said the prime minister.

In addition, the prime minister and the secretary general of NATO discussed the results of the NATO summit that took place in July and agreed that increasing the defence spending of the alliance is important. Estonia will continue to contribute more than two per cent of their GDP to the national defence.