The agreement covers cooperation on drones and is also intended to support closer collaboration in knowledge exchange, technology development and industrial cooperation. It will facilitate the sharing of expertise and experience in IT, cybersecurity and defence.
According to Michal, the agreement creates new opportunities to combine lessons from Ukraine’s wartime experience with the capabilities of Estonia’s defence industry. He said the cooperation would also help strengthen air defence capabilities.
“Ukraine has developed one of the world’s most competitive defence industries under wartime conditions, although its exports have so far been subject to very strict restrictions. The drone agreement expands opportunities for cooperation with Estonia’s defence industry and for applying Ukrainian defence technologies to meet our own needs. This will benefit our defence capabilities, our defence industry and Ukraine,” said the Prime Minister.
Under the agreement, Ukraine is prepared to export its products to Estonia. Estonia is ready, where necessary, to procure capabilities from Ukraine or jointly develop and manufacture new capabilities according to the needs of the Estonian Defence Forces.
“For Estonia, it is important to create as much combat capability as possible from every euro spent, and wherever possible, we also prefer local production,” said Michal. The Prime Minister said the agreement supports both Estonia’s defence industry and its defence capabilities.
“It is clearly in Estonia’s interests to acquire knowledge and technologies from Ukraine in order to strengthen our own defence capabilities and defence industry. The agreement means that Estonian-Ukrainian joint ventures will be able to begin production in Estonia, and Ukraine will confirm the necessary export licences for selected products,” said Defence Minister Hanno Pevkur.
Estonia said it remains one of Ukraine’s most consistent and significant supporters. The Estonian government said the involvement of Estonia’s defence industry in this cooperation continues to grow.
“We provide military assistance to Ukraine every year in the amount of more than 0.25% of GDP. This year, the figure is 0.28% of GDP. We encourage all NATO Allies to do the same,” Michal stressed.
“We are already putting together a steering group to select and process potential joint production projects within the ‘Build with Ukraine’ framework,” Pevkur confirmed. The drone agreement does not create any specific financial obligations for the Estonian state.
