MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Belgium has taken over the Baltic Air Policing mission during a ceremony at the Estonian Amari Air Base, Estonia's General Staff said on Thursday.
"NATO is a defense organization that can protect us in any climate. A good example of this is the mission to defend Baltic skies, which sends a message from our NATO allies to both our population and to our unpredictable neighbor," Estonia's Defense Minister Hannes Hanso said during the ceremony.
Belgium, as well as Spain, is to patrol the Baltic states' skies in 2016 as part of the rotating NATO mission. Four Spanish Eurofighter Typhoon jets are deployed to Latvia, while Belgian F-16 jets are deployed to Estonia, Latvia's Defense Ministry said late December.
The three Baltic states comprising Latvia, Estonia and neighboring Lithuania do not possess air patrol capabilities. Since joining NATO in 2004, the three Baltic countries' airspace has been controlled by a rotating NATO mission.
NATO's main base in the Baltic region is located at the Zokniai Air Force Base in Latvia, while the Estonian Amari Air Base has been used by the alliance since 2014.
