In an interview to BNS, US Ambassador to NATO Ivo Daalder stated that the United States supported the air-policing mission but refused to comment on the location the fighter jets should take off from. In his words, "the particulars of who and from where one does this mission are the kinds of operational issues that get discussed among militaries."
"We work within alliance to avoid disagreements, and rather than for me as the US ambassador to say 'you gotta go and only fly out of this airbase or only fly out of that airbase', let me just say: we are gonna do the mission, and it is important that the mission is done, that we do it in a way that provides maximum effectiveness," Daalder said, describing the Baltic air-policing mission as a good example of "wise defense."
Estonia seeks future rotation of the air-policing mission base, saying NATO fighter jets should not only land in Lithuania but also in the Estonian base of Amari. Lithuania, in its turn, wants its Air Force Base in Šiauliai to keep its status as the main and permanent place of deployment.
