On December 4 Chiefs of Defence of Estonia changed over at a formal ceremony in Tallinn, after seven years in office General Riho Terras farewelled the troops and unit flags of the Estonian Armed Forces and handed over the combat flag of the Estonian Defence Forces to Major General Martin Herem. Chief of Defence of Lithuania Lieutenant General Jonas Vytautas Žukas attended the ceremony.
Lt Gen Jonas Vytautas Žukas thanked Gen R. Terras for long cooperation on strengthening security of the Baltic region and congratulated the new Chief of Defence.
Maj Gen M. Herem has been in service since 1992, he graduated from the Estonian National Defence College, Joint Command and General Staff Course and the Higher Command Studies Course at the Baltic Defence College.
While in service with the Estonian Defence Forces, M. Herem held the duties of platoon and company commanders, operations officer, chief of staff of a battalion, tactical instructor and head of the department of tactics, Chief of Staff and later the Commander of the Multinational Corps Northeast. In 2006 he was deployed to Iraq, from 2012 he was the deputy commandant of the Estonian National Defence College, and its commandant from 2013. Maj Gen M. Herem was the Chief of the Defence Staff of Estonia for the past two years.
Lithuania and Estonia cooperate both trilaterally, as the three Baltic states, and multilaterally, in NATO, EU, NB8 and NORDEFCO formats, in defence area. Trilateral defence cooperation is most active in air policing, airspace surveillance, maritime, BALTDEFCOL, military training, capability development and defence planning areas.
Spokesperson for the Chief of Defence of Lithuania Maj Mindaugas Neimontas
+370 5 278 5091, +370 682 25359, mindaugas.neimontas@mil.lt
