Pevkur said that Salm's departure was a surprise to him, but the need for more ammunition was not.

"The chief of the Defense Forces has said this repeatedly. We have discussed it in the Ministry of Defense. We have to take into account that it is a footprint for the future, especially financially, but nobody has thrown it away. We're discussing it with the minister of finance at the moment, and we've done a separate briefing for the minister of finance with the chief of the Defence Forces on what that would mean," Pevkur told ERR on Thursday.

The minister said Salm was also present at the meeting with the minister of finance. "So he knows that, actually, it is being discussed at ministerial level in the government and, of course, if it's financially possible to do it, we will do it as soon as possible," he said.

However, Prime Minister Kaja Kallas (Reform) said at Thursday's weekly press conference that the government has not discussed this issue and that she has only heard about it from the media.

Pevkur said there is a process to follow: "We need to separate out what we do in the background before we go into government. The government will start discussing budget issues in September, when the national budget strategy will be prepared. And in order to prepare all this, I need to discuss it with the Minister of Finance earlier. So the two of us have been discussing what the options might be. And in that sense, it is absolutely correct that it has not really been put on the table at the government level yet."

The minister also pointed out that Martin Herem only completed the calculations a few weeks ago.

"The government is discussing such a large financial commitment as part of the national budget strategy. For this, proper groundwork must have been done. Proper preparation requires that there is military advice from the chief of Defense Forces. Based on the military advice, financial calculations are made and then it goes to the government for discussion," Pevkur said.

When the time is right, the government intends to discuss it, he added.

"There's no point blowing this out of proportion"

ERR asked the defense minister whether the prime minister's comment that she read about the situation in the media could be true.

"I'm not going to comment on anyone else's claims here. I can talk about what we have done, and there is no point in looking for an intrigue here between me and the Prime Minister, or between the government's debate or non-debate. There is no such intrigue. There is certainly no intrigue between the Ministry of Defense and the chief of Defense Forces. There is certainly no point in blowing this up in any way," Pevkur answered.

"There is a normal working process where at one point the permanent secretary decides that he no longer wants to work as permanent secretary of the Ministry of Defense and tenders his resignation," he added.

Pevkur did not say whether he feels any responsibility for Salm and Herem leaving over the €1.6 million.

"Not once did the chief of the Defense Forces use the fact that he was leaving because there was no 1.6 billion to justify his departure. At the time he announced his departure, these figures were not even on the table in his calculations in this form. So, in that sense, they should be separated. And if I look at the permanent secretary's speech, he did say that he had considered at the beginning of the year that he wanted to leave. Those have been both of their personal decisions.

"What I am interested in is that we look to the future. There is a new commander in chief of the defense forces, a very strong commander in chief of the defense forces. And certainly, there will be a very strong permanent secretary," the minister added.

"No security without financial sustainability"

ERR highlighted that Herem said there is no willingness at the decision-making level to make the necessary investments and that he cannot convince the decision-makers. Salm made similar comments.

"Listen. There is no national security in Estonia without financial sustainability. We cannot tear the country apart with new tax hikes or borrowing burdens for one specific sector," Pevkur said in response.

The minister said all areas need more money.  "It is up to the government to find the right decisions. And these decisions are always made by the government in the course of the national budget strategy, let's not get ahead of events. When the national budget strategy is locked in, we can also justify these choices, why one way or the other. But we know that the country's finances are not in a good state, that there is a deficit of several hundred million euros, and if we are talking about adding one and a half billion to that, that is a very, very large amount," said Pevkur.

Permanent Secretary Kusti Salm announced his resignation on Wednesday, citing the government's inability to buy "critical" ammunition worth €1.6 billion.

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