TALLINN. Feb 28 (Interfax) - Estonia would like to deploy NATO aircraft protecting the Baltic airspace at the Amari base from 2015, Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet told U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
The air policing is the best manifestation of NATO collective responsibilities in the Baltic states, the Estonian Foreign Ministry emphasized.
The NATO aircraft on the Baltic air policing mission are stationed in Lithuania on rotation principles. Meanwhile, Estonia will complete the reconstruction of the former Soviet airfield in Amari, 50 kilometers away from Tallinn, in 2015. It has said more than once that it was ready to welcome NATO aircraft there.
Paet also assured Perry of the Estonian readiness to continue cooperation with the United States in Afghanistan after the coalition pullout in 2014.
Paet met with Kerry in Rome on Wednesday. Latvian Foreign Minister Edgars Rinkevics and his Lithuanian colleague Linas Linkevicius also attended the meeting.