Estonian PM tells DW NATO ‘working well’

59 1 minute read

Teri Schultz interviews Estonia’s Prime Minister Kristen Michal

October 14, 2025

Estonia’s Prime Minister Kristen Michal says NATO is working well in the face of recent airspace incursions. For Estonia, he says, “NATO is our plan,” adding it has the capabilities necessary to shoot down whatever might violate the alliance’s skies.

Kristen Michal took office as Prime Minister of the Republic of Estonia in July, 2024.

The following is an extract from the interview.

Deutsche Welle: Do you feel that your population would want to see one of these jets shot down if they are so bold as to fly around [in your airspace] for more than ten minutes?

Kristen Michal: This is not like an opinion poll, to be honest, because the problem is still Russia and Putin, and Russia [which is] delivering drones to Poland’s airspace and attacking Ukraine and also being in our airspace. So each time there will be an assessment what it means, what is the intention of this event, and as we saw in Poland, the drones were shot down. So NATO works, the chain of command, the procedures are there. But this won’t be like an opinion poll at the moment, “Shall we shoot down these planes?” This is for NATO command to assess, what is the intention and so on.

For more, watch the video above.