On 18 March 2025, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania have announced they will leave the Ottawa Treaty that bans those who signed it to use anti-personnel mines. The ministers of defence of the four countries have issued a joint statement in which they say they need their military to be flexible to bolster NATO’s “vulnerable Eastern flank”. Finland might join them soon, as there seems to be a political majority in the Finnish parliament that would support bolstering the country’s border with anti-personnel mines.
“Since ratifying the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (Ottawa Convention), the security situation in our region has fundamentally deteriorated,” the statement starts. “Military threats to NATO member states bordering Russia and Belarus have significantly increased. In light of this unstable security environment – marked by Russia’s aggression and its ongoing threat to the Euro-Atlantic community – it is essential to evaluate all measures to strengthen our deterrence and defence capabilities.”
Land mines wound or kill civilians
Since the Convention on the Prohibition of the Use, Stockpiling, Production and Transfer of Anti-Personnel Mines and on their Destruction – as the Ottawa Treaty is officially called – was first signed in 1997, 164 countries have ratified the agreement. The reason was that the anti-personnel landmines are harder to detect and often wound or kill civilians severely decades after they have been used and conflicts have ended.
Fearing Russian incursions into their countries after the war in Ukraine has ended, the Baltic states and Poland have reopened the political will to use small, hard to detect landmines aimed to take out enemy troops at their borders with Belarus and Russia/Kaliningrad. Russia also never signed the Ottawa Treaty.
Lithuania rearming
Although no plans have been announced to buy and stockpile anti-personnel mines yet, Lithuania announced this week it is reinforcing its armed forces with up to 85,000 anti-tank mines. The country’s Minister of National Defence Dovilė Šakalienė has confirmed to allocate EUR 50 million for this, and wishes to have indigenous production and supply line of them. The minister said she also wants to beef up Lithuania’s manufacturing of drones and anti-drone systems. Šakalienė confirmed to Lithuanian media the country is looking for joint development and/or procurement of weapons with Poland. She also said talks are ongoing with defence industries from the United States, Germany, Ukraine and Scandinavia.
Estonian politician resigned over critical ammunition
Meanwhile, two borders north, in Estonia, the Ministry of Defence Permanent Secretary Kusti Salm resigned last week, blaming the government for “refusing to buy critical ammunition” for the Estonian Defence Forces. Despite having bought HIMARS truck-based multiple rocket systems, anti-ship missiles and self-propelled howitzers, Salm says much more is needed.
According to Estonian national broadcasting company ERR, Salm requested for more than 800 long-range missiles (ATACMS), 500 precision rockets for ground-based artillery systems (GMLRS), more than 25,000 artillery grenades, and 1,000 precision artillery grenades to stop the first wave of a Russian invasion. The costs of this would be EUR 1.6 billion, on top of the EUR 3.2 billion the Estonian government has already allocated. | © 2025 Marcel Burger, nordicreporter.com. Featured image: A US-made Claymore anti-personnel mine (Photo: Bill Morrow (CC))