NATO Given Three Year Wake-Up Call

NATO has three to four years to enhance its defensive capabilities in the face of a potential threat from Russia, according to Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna.

Tsahkna made the remarks during a visit to Warsaw, Poland, on Wednesday where he said that Estonia and the other Baltic nations—Lithuania and Latvia—do not see Russia as an immediate threat because of the country’s current focus on its invasion of Ukraine.

“But we must understand the Russian war machine has started in the full scale, the capabilities for production and the mentality as well, because Putin is controlling now everything,” Tsahkna said at a press conference with Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski.

Tsahkna said that his country’s government believed it could take “three to four years” for Russia to prepare what he called a “test for NATO.”

Newsweek has reached out to NATO via the organization’s website for comment.

All three Baltic countries, as well as Poland, are members of the NATO military alliance which was established under U.S. leadership after World War II.

They have been strong supporters of Ukraine since the Russian invasion began on February 24, 2022, in what Russian President Vladimir Putin called a “special military operation.”

Ukraine is not a member of NATO but the country has enjoyed support from NATO members and those in the organization’s leadership as it has resisted the Russian invasion.

Also on Wednesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg urged the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bipartisan $95.34 billion aid package for Ukraine and other U.S. allies, which has already been approved by the Senate.

“I count on the House of Representatives to agree support to Ukraine, because this is not charity. This is an investment in our own security,” Stoltenberg told Reuters in an interview.

“If President Putin wins in Ukraine, it will send a message to him but also to other authoritarian leaders that they get what they want when they use military force. It will make the world more dangerous (and) us more vulnerable,” the secretary general said.

President Joe Biden also urged the House to pass the bill in remarks on Tuesday following the Senate vote on the aid package.

“Supporting this bill is standing up to Putin. Opposing it is playing into Putin’s hands,” Biden said.

“As I have said before, the stakes in this fight extend far beyond Ukraine. If we don’t stop Putin’s appetite for power and control in Ukraine, he won’t limit himself just to Ukraine and the costs for America and our allies and partners is going to rise,” the president said.

However, it is not clear whether the House will even consider the bill after Speaker Mike Johnson criticized the bill on Monday, saying senators “should have gone back to the drawing border to include real border security provisions that would actually help end the ongoing catastrophe.”