With last week’s press release, the Netherlands and Germany signaled their readiness to take over the command of NATO defensive operations in Latvia and Estonia, but the release does not assume responsibility for assigning the units and enablers the corps would need. NATO’s regional headquarters reform is easy to sell publicly as a strengthening of deterrence and defense posture, but the real work of reinforcement is only just beginning.
Until now, command of the collective-defense operation for the Baltics and northeastern Poland was the responsibility of the Multinational Corps Northeast, based in Szczecin, Poland, whose framework nations also include Germany.
Estonia’s Ministry of Defense considers the change militarily sensible, since the northeastern corps’ previous area of responsibility was large, especially given that a new Baltic defense plan was approved in 2023.
A Temporary Decline in Command Capability
Former Estonian Defense Forces commander General Martin Herem has told ERR that assigning the German-Dutch Corps to the Latvia-Estonia axis had been under discussion for three years; in his view, the decision is largely positive, although command capability may temporarily decline during the transition.
Herem said Estonia has trained together with the Multinational Corps Northeast. “We know each other’s, so to speak, warfighting culture; we know how strong we are, what additional forces will arrive, and how well we are able to use all of it.” The German-Dutch Corps headquarters representatives have been to Estonia, have attended exercises as observers, “but it certainly does not have the same level of experience with us as the current corps headquarters based in Poland,” according to Herem.
“I don’t know why this [decision] has not been done. It is mainly a political decision, and I dare say not an Estonian one, but rather a political decision at the German, Dutch and NATO level. If the basic agreement exists but has not yet been formalized, then this is a very dangerous waste of time,” Herem said.