In a joint letter, the leaders of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia called on the EU to build a defense line along the 700-kilometer-long bloc's border with Russia and Belarus. According to preliminary estimates, the cost of such a project could be about €2.5 billion.
This was reported by Reuters.
It is noted that on Wednesday, June 26, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia called on the European Union to build a defense line along the border with Russia and Belarus to protect against military threats and other harmful actions by the Kremlin.
The letter is to be discussed at the summit in Brussels on June 27: "In a letter to the chairman of the EU to be discussed at a summit in Brussels starting on Thursday, the leaders of the four countries that share borders with Russia and Belarus said the project, to protect the 27-nation bloc of 450 million people, would also need the financial support of all members."
The letter from the four leaders mentions the following:
"Building a defence infrastructure system along the EU external border with Russia and Belarus will address the dire and urgent need to secure the EU from military and hybrid threats."
In this context, hybrid threats will include both military and non-military actions, overt or covert means of influence, including disinformation, cyberattacks, economic pressure, and migrant smuggling.
"The scale and cost of this joint project requires targeted action by the EU to support it politically and financially," the letter says.
The likely cost of such a project - the construction of a defense line along the EU's 700-kilometer border with Russia and Belarus - could be around €2.5 billion ($2.67 billion).
With this in mind, EU investment in defense will be one of the key topics for discussion by EU leaders at the summit.
Earlier, we also wrote that Belarus has launched a sudden inspection of military bases on the border with Ukraine.