Magnus-Valdemar Saar, Director General of the Estonian Centre for Defence Investments (ECDI), and Lubor Koudelka, Director General of the Armaments and Acquisition Division of the Czech Ministry of Defence, signed a memorandum of understanding, which lays the foundation for defence cooperation between the two countries. The aim of the agreement is to cooperate in the field of armaments and their procurement. Thanks to the memorandum of understanding signed on 15 August, Estonia and the Czech Republic will be able to start jointly procuring defence equipment in the future.
The Czech Republic has strong companies operating in the defence industry. We hope that the cooperation agreement will create closer connections with the industry there and bring more of their manufacturers to participate in our procurements. In the future, joint procurements will make Estonia’s situation on the market much more favourable, as cooperation with the Czech Republic will increase the volume of procurements and thus create economies of scale. In addition, joint procurements will allow us to leverage our institution’s engineering expertise and share the costs of project management,” said Magnus-Valdemar Saar, Director General of the ECDI.
I would like to stress that today’s signature of the Memorandum of Understanding is a symbolic but important step. It represents a new era in collaboration between our countries and an increasing importance of the Baltic region overall. Today’s discussion showed, that we have much to learn from countries like Estonia. For us the MoU is not only about increasing relations through defence industry, but also about sharing best practices and experiences in acquisitions and procurements. We hope to strengthen our relations with the ECDI and hopefully the MoU can lead to some future joint procurements,” said Lubor Koudelka, Director General of the Armaments and Acquisition Division of the Czech Ministry of Defence.
Estonian Centre for Defence Investments (Riigi Kaitseinvesteeringute Keskus, ECDI) operates under the Ministry of Defence of Estonia to provide the best service for the Estonian Defence Forces and Ministry’s agencies. ECDI scope of activities gives you the opportunity to contribute in many ways – from areas of procurement and law to the safety of the military training areas. The organization procure equipment, provide services, maintain and develop infrastructure for the Estonian Defence Forces.
