EANC Provides a Perspective on the 2024 NATO Summit held July 9-11 in Washington, DC

(For release July 31, 2024) The Estonian American National Council (EANC) welcomes the steps taken at the 2024 NATO Summit to affirm Ukraine’s irreversible path to NATO membership. EANC also congratulates the North Atlantic Treaty Organization on its 75^th anniversary, as well as the Republic of Estonia on its 20 years of membership in NATO.  

NATO, the world’s longest enduring alliance, grew out of the ravages of the Second World War with a mission to provide a foundation of peace and security upon which people could rebuild and live their lives in peace and prosperity. Over the past 75 years, NATO has proven itself as the best vehicle for safeguarding a secure and free Europe.

Estonia’s steps to join NATO began in 1994 with the Partnership for Peace program, and culminated in March 2004 when the Estonian parliament ratified NATO’s North Atlantic Treaty, followed by the ‘’instruments of accession” being deposited with the U.S. in Washington, D.C. Since then, Estonia has made many significant contributions to NATO capabilities, including the establishment of a Tallinn-based cyber defense center, and has made  necessary investments in its own defense.

The Estonian American National Council highlights the steps taken during the 2024 NATO Summit toward goals important to Estonia and the other Baltics:

• NATO members agreed on a series of key deliverables for Ukraine to aid in the ongoing war with Russia, a military package valued at over 40 billion Euros.  
• NATO members affirmed Ukraine’s “irreversible path” to NATO membership. Though shy of an “invitation” to join, Ukraine will clearly be building a more enduring relationship, taking practical steps toward interoperability.
• Members affirmed and stiffened overall defense and deterrence plans, and marked their progress toward meeting implementation goals set in Vilnius (at the 2023 Summit).   

Additionally, the NATO Summit called attention to the many coordination and planning issues, including the recognition that defense industry production must be scaled up. The previous spending target, 2% of GDP for national defense, is now seen as the “floor,” with 3.5% of GDP a more realistic target for addressing today’s needs. Additionally, NATO’s work with the “Indo-Pacific Partnership” (New Zealand, Japan, Korea, and Australia) was called out for its importance; all of these partners were in attendance.

A particular highlight of this year’s Summit resulted from the addition of Sweden and Finland to the alliance: The Nordic Baltic area has been redrawn. Estonia is now part of the “The Nordic 8” group of nations within NATO, a group which contributes many areas of expertise and vociferously shares its perspectives.

Clearly, there is more work to be done to secure the Baltic and, indeed, the entire trans-Atlantic region from an aggressive Russia. But with the 2024 Summit, the NATO family demonstrated it can work together to face the multi-domain and global challenges of today. Alongside this, important bilateral agreements have been signed, including the Ukraine Compact with its 25 signatures, which provides security guarantees for Ukraine until it is under Article 5 protection. 

Of course, we wanted more. We had hoped for the U.S. to state “we are in it to win,” and to not hold back the permissions and dollar support that would make such a declaration of support for Ukraine meaningful; we would have liked for NATO to have issued an immediate invitation to Ukraine, details to be worked out later.     

History is not yet written. As Estonian Americans, our collective work is to stay focused on the long-term issues of peace and security for the Baltic, and to continue sharing with the U.S. public our Estonian-American perspective, including the enormous stakes of Russia’s aggressions in Europe.  Specific actions we can take include vocalizing support for the Baltic Security Initiative (BSI) as part of FY2025 Defense appropriations.  We can continue to educate ourselves (see https://jbanc.org/), contact elected representatives, talk to friends and neighbors, and use the media we are most comfortable with to get the message out. As the U.S. elections approach this fall, we should regard this work with a sense of urgency. Let’s not underestimate the power we have when we act together.    

Mai-Liis Bartling

EANC president