This June, Salm announced that he is voluntarily resigning from his post as permanent secretary of Estonia's Ministry of Defense. More specifically, Salm will be leaving the ministry at the end of August.

Regarding his next role, Salm told ERR that things will become clearer following his departure, but that his new role will be not in civil service, but in business.

"Right now it seems that way," he said. "Although there have been offers from the state side as well."

Even on the business side of things, however, Salm will still remain connected to the defense sector. "It will definitely be within the defense sector," he confirmed. "That's what I know, that's what I've done, and that's what I believe in."

When announcing his resignation as permanent secretary in June, Salm then cited Estonia's failure to make critical decisions to increase the country's ammunition reserves as his reason for doing so.

At the time, he said that he and then-Commander of the Estonian Defense Forces (EDF) Martin Herem had repeatedly made proposals to address Estonia's critical ammunition shortage.

"Unfortunately, Estonia is now in a situation where this decision has not been made," Salm said. "I regret to say that I don't consider this to be right. In order to be able to speak out publicly on these issues, I have decided to resign from my position."

Kusti Salm has served as permanent secretary of the Ministry of Defense since May 17, 2021. The term for the position of permanent secretary is five years; Salm has served for just over three.

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