Herem says arms purchases require risk-taking to avoid inaction

Arms purchases and aid to Ukraine inevitably involve serious risks, but fear of making mistakes must not lead Estonia into inaction, Martin Herem said in an interview with Vikerraadio’s Vikerhommik, reported by ERR. The interview took place before he learned that he had been proposed as the next defence minister.

Herem said procuring weapons in a critical situation necessarily involved difficult choices and risks.

“Ukraine needed shells and needs them today. Countries have money and there are companies, some more questionable and some less questionable, with risks attached, that could sell them. The only way not to fail is not to buy the shells,” Herem said. Having seen the situation in Ukraine himself, he added that abandoning efforts to help would seem criminal.

Herem acknowledged that expedited purchases and risk-taking could occasionally fail, but said this was no reason to stop making decisions. Excessive caution, he warned, would make the situation worse.

“The only way never to make a mistake seems to be to do nothing. In reality, we would then set off on an even faster overall decline,” he said. Herem added that he did not know the detailed risks involved, but knew that the Estonian state and the State Defence Investment Centre had acted out of a desire to help Ukraine quickly.

Estonia had not delayed its decisions or aid compared with other countries, Herem said, but had acted quickly. That had inevitably led to situations in which risks materialised.

“Now we see responsibility being taken and people resigning from office. That may be inevitable: society sees that something was done wrong, and that is the end of it. It does not even see how much went well, but asks why the risks were taken,” Herem said, referring to Hanno Pevkur’s resignation as defence minister.

Herem said leadership and national defence required understanding that decisions demanded courage. He added that he understood what Magnus-Valdemar Saar, the former head of the State Defence Investment Centre, had felt while handling arms purchases.

“In any kind of leadership, decisions have to be made. If you make a decision and do not feel some pain in your stomach, you are probably simply approving the natural development of a process and not actually doing anything,” Herem said.

He said he did not know the details of every arms purchase decision, but knew that Saar had felt uncertain about whether the efforts would succeed.

“That is how you have to act. You must not fail and you should not fail, but sometimes it is inevitable,” Herem said.

It emerged on September 3 that Estonia had sought to buy shells for Ukraine and had paid a total of 70 million euros in advance to Indian businesses that had allegedly never sold a shell before. The previous day, Pevkur said on the public broadcaster’s Aktuaalne kaamera programme that the findings of the National Audit Office concerning the activities of the Defence Forces and the State Defence Investment Centre required him to take political responsibility and resign.

On September 9, Prime Minister Kristen Michal said he would propose that Herem, the former commander of the Defence Forces, become defence minister. Herem accepted the offer.