Estonian Defence Ministry says UK-led troops will not stay in Estonia

The US-led group's forces should be able to quickly deploy to the region in case of a crisis not stay indefinitely, Estonia said in a statement.

A British military brigade that is assigned to secure NATO's eastern border will not be staying in Estonia on a permanent basis, a defense ministry official in Tallinn has said.

Madis Roll, the top NATO and EU minister at the Estonian Defense Ministry, published the remarks in a live broadcast on Wednesday by the broadcaster ERR, following an announcement by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius earlier this week that Berlin would be deploying 4,000 of its soldiers to another Baltic nation, Lithuania.

Germany is ready to permanently station a robust brigade in Lithuania, Pistorius said during a visit to Lithuania's capital, Vilnius, which will host a NATO summit next month. Berlin expects its brigade to be ready for deployment in 2025, but Lithuania would have to build facilities to accommodate the Bundeswher troops first.

Roll said that Estonia, which is in discussions with the UK on more military assistance, differs from Lithuania in its views on NATO deployments.

The request of Lithuania to Germany has clearly had a political dimension. It's clear that there should be deterrence through presence. Our approach has always been to achieve deterrence through actual military capabilities, he said.

The Estonian Defence Ministry stance is that NATO forces do not need to be permanently stationed in the country but must be able to quickly arrive to Tallinns assistance in case of a crisis, the official said.

Brigadier General Giles Harris, commander of a UK-led brigade, has already arrived in Estonia, Roll said. But the sides are still discussing the scale of the British presence and which NATO equipment should be positioned there, he said.

Following the launch of Russia's military operation in Ukraine, NATO decided to strengthen its existing battle groups in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland and establish four more multinational formations in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia.

Moscow has long denied the expansion of the US military alliance, calling the conflict in Ukraine a proxy conflict waged by NATO.

Russia's authorities say that US and its European allies' weapons, funds and intelligence provided to Kiev by the US and its European allies are only prolonging the fighting while increasing the risk of a direct confrontation between Russia and NATO.