Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur spoke about plans to integrate the coast guards of Estonia and Finland, which will allow Russian ships to close access to the Baltic Sea.

“The integration of the anti-missile defense of Finland and Estonia will allow closing the Gulf of Finland for Russian warships. The Baltic Sea with the accession of Finland and Sweden to NATO will become the inland sea of \u200b\u200bthe alliance,” he said in an interview with Iltalehti.

A preliminary agreement, according to Pevkur, was reached during a meeting with his Finnish counterpart Antti Kaikkonen.

The range of Finnish and Estonian missiles exceeds the width of the bay and allows you to keep it under control, the minister reminded.

Last fall, Estonia decided to buy Israeli Blue Spear missiles to suppress naval targets.. The range of missiles is 290 kilometers, they can hit targets anywhere on the coast of Finland in the Gulf.

The MTO 85M anti-ship missile of the Finnish Navy has a range of more than 100 kilometers and is equipped with a radar search head. Thus, the Finnish military can control the water area up to the northern coast of Estonia.

Also in the coming weeks, the headquarters of the new NATO division will be created in Estonia, five of its brigades will be deployed on the territory of the country. How many soldiers will be permanently in Estonia is still unknown.

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Estonia will also buy anti-tank missiles, new coastal defense missiles, HIMARS missile launchers and others from the US.

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On August 9, US President Joe Biden signed protocols ratifying Finland and Sweden's NATO membership. Similar decisions were made by two thirds of the countries of the Alliance.

Sweden and Finland announced their intention to join NATO in May, after the Russian invasion of Ukraine led to a change in attitude towards joining the bloc. On June 29, the Alliance officially began the process of accepting both countries.