In September 2014, US President Barack Obama gave the Baltic states an unconditional guarantee of mutual defence. He declared at the time in the Estonian capital Tallinn, “The defence of Tallinn, Riga and Vilnius is just as important as the defence of Berlin, Paris and London.” He committed himself to an “eternal” obligation to defend Estonia with its 1.3 million residents according to Article 5 of the NATO statutes and promised to send American ground troops in the worst case scenario.