UK offers Estonia a nuclear umbrella without basing weapons there

The United Kingdom is offering its nuclear guarantee to Estonia and eight other northern European countries through the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF), but the offer does not mean nuclear weapons will be stationed in Estonia, ERR reports.

British Navy chief General Gwyn Jenkins told Finland’s Iltalehti that the UK was formally making the offer to the JEF countries: Estonia, the Netherlands, Iceland, Lithuania, Latvia, Norway, Sweden, Finland and Denmark.

Former defence minister Hanno Pevkur said nuclear deterrence decisions are made collectively by NATO allies, and all JEF members are also NATO members. He described the offer chiefly as a political signal to potential adversaries, saying JEF countries can make decisions more quickly than NATO as a whole.

Security expert Meelis Oidsalu called the announcement largely an empty statement, arguing that US and British nuclear deterrence already extends to NATO’s collective defence. He also said the offer appeared to divert attention from the UK’s failure to make necessary decisions on funding conventional military capabilities.

Pevkur said placing nuclear weapons in Estonia would not add a strategic advantage. Decisions about where particular capabilities are based are made confidentially within NATO’s nuclear group, he said. Oidsalu agreed, noting that British nuclear submarines can operate in different parts of the world and that deterrence does not require a visible presence on land or nuclear-armed aircraft at Ämari air base.