„As the supreme commander of national defence I can really sleep quite peacefully at night because I know, that when the time should come, then my order of mobilization will be fulfilled in the matter of hours. And that this order will send into combat not poorly trained and poorly armed cannon fodder, but combat ready, fully manned, well-trained citizens whom the Estonian state has given the best chances of first survival and then success,“ the Estonian Head of State said.
„Our well-functioning reserve army model could be in the security and defence community a similar trademark as our digital-ID, Skype or e-residency are in the digital community,“ President Kaljulaid added.
According to the Head of State the Estonian reserve army allows to combine quality with quantity in the infantry. „In the context of a NATO article 5 operation it’s not infantry units that we first need from our Allies. But rather we need our Allies to pitch in with capabilities and units that will always remain too expensive for us to develop ourselves,“ President Kaljulaid said.
In her speech the Estonian Head of State also brought up the positive societal impact of conscription and reserve service. „It is probably why we have a relatively stable political and societal consensus on spending at least 2% of GDP on defence. And even more importantly—conscription and the Defence League have given the society tens of thousands of men and women who know how to defend Estonia. This is the thing that makes us strong and confident. And it’s very difficult to attack and defeat a nation who’s confident,“ president Kaljulaid said.
The 14th Annual Baltic Conference on Defence (ABCD) organised by the International Centre for Defence and Security focuses on the defence of Baltic countries, lessons learned from the pandemic and the role of reserve forces.
The full speech can be found here: https://www.president.ee/en/official-duties/speeches/16194-opening-speech-of-the-annual-baltic-conference-on-defence-abcd/index.html
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