Estonia’s future defense minister Herem will not interfere in Defense Forces commander’s work
Estonia’s future defense minister, Martin Herem, said he would lead the ministry as a politician and would not interfere in the work of the commander of the Estonian Defense Forces, General Andrus Merilo. Herem said this in an interview with ERR News.
According to Herem, he agreed to take the position for about six months because, in his view, this time should be used to prepare defense decisions rather than wait for the next elections. He noted that he had not asked the prime minister for special powers, but needs political support to discuss threat assessments with state institutions.
Defense priorities
Herem named the Baltic Defense Line as one of the key issues, saying that, in his assessment, it has currently stalled. He also believes that Estonia needs to develop air defense more quickly, including surveillance systems, public information and coordination of the actions of different state agencies.
Herem said Estonian intelligence services report Russia’s rapid buildup of military capabilities and allow for the possibility that several years after the end of the war against Ukraine, Russia could test Estonia militarily. He also recalled that the commander of the Estonian Defense Forces had called 2027 critical, while the intelligence services of Denmark and Lithuania had spoken of a period of one to three years. According to Herem, former Chief of Defence of the Netherlands and Chair of NATO’s Military Committee Admiral Rob Bauer assessed that Russia could gain sufficient strength to test NATO within three years even during the aggressor state’s war against Ukraine.
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Conflict of interest and stock accounting
Herem said he is ending all working relationships in the private sector. He stated that most of these relationships have already ended, and that he intends to terminate his contract with Frankenburg immediately. He named oversight by relevant bodies and his own awareness of conflict-of-interest risks as additional safeguards.
Separately, Herem drew attention to problems with the accounting of Defense Forces stocks. In his opinion, the information systems used in peacetime should also function during wartime, when the command and the government must know how resources are distributed among different directions.
He proposed considering the involvement of an external private-sector specialist to review accounting practices and information-classification rules. Herem noted that confidentiality requirements can make information systems expensive, cumbersome and difficult to create. At the same time, he said he has no specific list of officials to replace and is not planning large-scale personnel changes at the ministry.
