Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, whether the decision to send periodic deployments of Chinooks and Apaches to Estonia from January 2023 came following a request from the Estonian government.

The decision to make periodic deployments of Chinook and Apache helicopters to Estonia from January 2023 did not come following a specific request from the Estonian Government, but rather from the wider commitments the UK made at NATO's Madrid Summit in June 2022. The UK has since worked closely with Estonia to implement our Madrid Summit commitments and ensure that our force posture is commensurate with Estonia's and NATO's security needs. This culminated in the Secretary of State for Defence and the Estonian Defence Minister signing a Roadmap on 8 November which sets out our joint plan to deliver our Madrid Summit commitments, including the periodic deployment of helicopters, for the forward defence of Estonia.