The National Defence Council acknowledged the efforts of the Estonian Defence Forces made to conform to the standards of NATO members' armed forces. "In the face of our scarce resources a good job has been done," President Rüütel observed. The same opinion already earlier had been expressed by NATO officers evaluating the development of Estonian defence structures and professional skills of their personnel. The combined training exercise "Baltic Eagle 2002" carried out on September 2-21 in the eastern part of Harju County and in Lääne-Viru County, an overview of which was presented to the National Defence Council by Commander of the Defence Forces Tarmo Kõuts, had been a success too.
Thereafter, the National Defence Council on the basis of a presentation by National Security Police Commissioner Jüri Pihl discussed the state's readiness to cope with the possible threat of terrorism.
The presentation of Academician Ülo Jaaksoo, Member of the President's Academic Council, dealt with protection of information and infrastructure as an essential component of national security.
Press Service of the Office of the President
Kadriorg, September 27, 2002
