A unit of 300 soldiers from the French Army and the Foreign Legion is expected to arrive in the Estonian town of Tapa, just 140 kilometres away from the Russian border, next week, according to France’s Embassy in Tallinn.
The troops will stay in Estonia until the end of August as a part of the FRA-EFP LYNX mission, which is aimed at boosting the alliance’s presence in the region. Paris will also deploy five Leclerc tanks and 20 infantry fighting vehicles, including 13 VBCIs, which is a French version of Multi-Role Armoured Vehicles (MRAV). They will be transported to Estonia by rail.
This is not the first time that French forces have been present in Estonia, as they were also located in Tapa for ten months in 2017. In addition, in 2018, the French Air Force also patrolled Estonian airspace within the framework of NATO’s Baltic air security mission.