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On Wednesday, 9 November, in Pärnu, Estonia, Defence Ministers of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia have agreed on setting up a joint trilateral Command and Reporting Centre, CRC), which will help to strengthen the Baltic airspace control and to ensure a better control of the aircraft fighters which have been deployed to the NATO air-policing mission.
In the words of Lithuanian Minister of National Defence, Gediminas Kirkilas, there have been plans to set up such a centre since the accession of the Baltic States to NATO and the recent crash of the Russian SU-27 fighter in Lithuania has demonstrated the relevance of such a centre.
The Baltic Command and Reporting Centre will be set up on the basis of the existing infrastructure and currently operating Karmelava-based Regional Airspace Surveillance Co-ordination Centre.
At the meeting, the Lithuanian Minister of National Defence Gediminas Kirkilas, Latvian Minister of Defence Einars Rep_e and Estonian Minister of Defence Jürgen Ligi were briefed on the currently on-going trilateral military projects BALTRON, BALTNET, BALTCCIS, BALTDEFCOL.
The Ministers also discussed the involvement of the Baltic States in international operations. The Lithuanian Minister of National Defence informed his counterparts on the activity ofthe Lithuania-led Ghor Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) in Afghanistan and announced that Lithuania had joined the NATO-led humanitarian assistance mission in Pakistan by having contributed a ten-member water purification unit deployed to the mission.
While talking over the co-operation with the countries aspiring membership within euroatlantic structures, the Lithuanian, Latvian and Estonian Ministers of Defence reaffirmed their support to Ukraine and South Caucasian countries and declared their support to the nations of the Adriatic Charter -- Albania, Croatia and Macedonia -- on their road towards NATO.
At the end of the meeting, the Baltic Ministers of Defence signed a ministerial co-operation plan for the year 2006.
Meetings of the Baltic Defence Ministers are traditionally held twice a year. The meeting, which took place in Pärnu, was the second conference of the Baltic Ministers of Defence to take place this year.
The previous one was held earlier in April in Druskininkai, Lithuania.
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