The Baltic States and Poland are looking for funds to create a defense line on the border with Belarus.

Euractiv reported on this.

Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and Poland provided details on strengthening NATO’s eastern flank in a joint document sent to the European Commission.

The document also contains an estimate of the cost of this large-scale project, which, according to the four countries, will amount to €10 billion. The initiative will require additional investments from other European countries.

In addition, the document states that strengthening the defense line will affect the update of the White Paper on European Defense, emphasizing the need to actively prepare for a potential military conflict with Russia and Belarus.

The €10 billion includes not only the construction of border fortifications and military bases but also the purchase of weapons and the creation of infrastructure to strengthen the 1,340-kilometer border from Finland to the Baltic States and Poland.

As stated in the document, protecting the border with Russia and Belarus is critical to the security of the European Union and frontline states.

“We need to take urgent measures to increase counter-mobility, strengthen air surveillance and air defense, as well as to strengthen electronic defense and underwater security of our borders,” the document, which Euractiv reviewed, says.

It should be noted that in their list, the Baltic states and Poland propose that the EU countries jointly invest in infrastructure, which will include fortifications, modern border surveillance systems, electronic warfare equipment, unmanned aerial vehicles, and countermeasures.

It also envisages the creation of warehouses for storing equipment, fuel, ammunition, and explosives, as well as the development of logistics for transportation and shelters.

Militarnyi previously reported that Finland is building a two-hundred-kilometer fence on the border with the Russian Federation ahead of schedule.

In 2023, the plans to build a large-scale fence on the Finnish-Russian border were reported. Preparations for constructing the first section of the fence started in February 2023, and the construction itself was launched in April.

The first section, about 3 kilometers long, was built near the checkpoint near the town of Imatra. This stage of construction allowed the Finnish authorities to test whether the structure would withstand winter frosts, snow loads, and a possible influx of migrants from the east.