Could tiny Estonia be Canada’s defence industry mentor?

Canada and Estonia have been cozying up as of late. In May, Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand visited the Estonian capital of Tallinn for the grand opening of the expanded Canadian embassy. And last week, Estonian Economy Minister Erkki Keldo made his first visit to Canada, touring Montreal and Toronto where he met with various companies, chambers of commerce, and his Canadian counterpart Mélanie Joly. 

Keldo was here to forge stronger ties between the two countries and pitch Estonia as a model for Canada to follow on defence industrial policy. “Estonia’s procurement and industrial benefits strategies are working examples of concepts Canada has mostly only talked about,” reads a Globe and Mail article, “and could serve as a model for Ottawa as it embarks on its own defence buildup.” That sounds promising, but is it a realistic claim to make?

In a few short years, Estonia has overhauled its defence industry, which has grown 20-fold over the past five years. This year, the Baltic country will spend 5.4% of its GDP on core military spending, which would make it one of the first NATO allies to meet the bloc’s 5% of GDP defence spending target inaugurated last year. How did Estonia manage to pull off its defence spending overhaul? “Well, it's pretty simple,” says Andres Kasekamp, the Elmar Tampõld Chair of Estonian Studies at the Munk School, “they live right next door to Russia.”