By Juris Kaža
Riga (EFE).- The prime ministers of Estonia and Lithuania, Kristen Michal and Inga Ruginiene, respectively, announced at a joint press conference in Tallinn on Friday that their countries had been informed of possible delays in United States weapons deliveries due to depleted supplies in the war against Iran.
«The US has informed us of the situation, and we The prime ministers of Estonia and Lithuania, Kristen Michal and Inga Ruginiene, respectively, announced at a joint press conference in Tallinn on Friday that their countries had been informed of possible delays in United States weapons deliveries due to depleted supplies in the war against Iran.understand the reasoning and the circumstances. And we are in close contact with them, the US, and are discussing how to address these supply challenges. And the US remains our biggest ally,“ Estonian Prime Minister Kristen Michal said.
He didn’t elaborate on what weapons Estonia has on order from the US that could be affected by the delays.
“We don’t see a big problem so far, but we also understand that some of the deadlines are moving. So, today Lithuania doesn’t have a problem, but we have a very strong communication with Americans, and hopefully that in the future it will be the same,» Lithuania’s Prime Minister Inga Ruginiene told journalists.
Latvia’s Prime Minister, Evika Siliņa, said that her government was not officially informed of the reported delays in the delivery of weapons.
“We have not been officially informed yet,” she said.
“There is no information from the US that they will not fulfil delivery obligations,» she added.
The three Baltic Prime Ministers were meeting as part of the intergovernmental Baltic Council, where Estonia holds the rotating chairmanship in 2026.
The Baltic countries have ordered weapons systems from the US, including High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) rocket artillery, Javelin anti-tank missiles, and naval strike missiles developed by Raytheon of the US.
According to media reports, the US, Israel, and the Gulf States have mainly consumed air defense weapons and long-range strike systems. There has been no ground combat using rocket artillery in the US war against Iran.
Despite large cost overruns and uncertain funding, the Baltic prime ministers expressed confidence that the Rail Baltica project, which aims to link Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania to the rest of Europe with a high-speed rail connection for passenger, freight, and defense-related traffic, will be finished by 2030.
«Although we have a gap between financial mechanisms from Europe and the Commission, we have to put our national money into this project. We believe, and we are sure that we will finish it on time,” Ruginiene said, noting that Lithuania had completed 114 kilometers (70 miles) of the 260-kilometer (161 miles) rail track planned in the southernmost Baltic country.
“Estonia is following the schedule nicely, so we are going to be ready by 2030. Of course, we need some extra financing over the next few years. We have found additional funding from the budget before, so we have used different means, and I’m certain that we’ll find this additional funding,” Estonia’s PM Michal said.
In Latvia, a connection to the Riga railway station and Riga airport was being built outside the direct Rail Baltica project, according to Siliņa, and on the project itself.
“We have concluded contracts for all the designs. We have all the projects in place. Therefore, if we are adjusting something, it’s just because we really need to reduce the costs.»
In 2024, the state audit agencies of all three Baltic countries in a joint report stated that “according to the new cost-benefit analysis, the expected development costs of the Rail Baltica project have increased since 2017 from 5.8 billion euros to 23.8 billion euros in 2023.” EFE
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