Republic of Estonia on the Road Back to the West… Background and Reality of the Israeli Weapons Deal, 1992/1993

Abstract

 In the early 1990s not a single Western government agreed to sell arms to the newly independent Estonia. As the constitutional government of Mart Laar (1992) declared a strong interest in Western collective security, even NATO membership, Soviet weapons became unacceptable and insupportable. In contrast, a plentiful supply of highly vaunted Western arms was considered a guarantee for the Republic’s continued independence and a precondition for future acceptance in Western security policy structures – and ultimately membership in NATO.

Estonian businessman Leonid Apananski had tested the waters for a weapons deal with Israel already in the autumn of 1991. After Mr Laar’s government had taken office in October 1992, our negotiations and contacts with the Israeli partners continued in Tallinn, Israel and Helsinki. The contracts for a secret deal were signed in January 1993 in Tallinn. We purchased armaments for a reinforced light infantry division and they were up to NATO standard. At a cost of 60 million US dollars they turned out more expensive than Chinese or Romanian weapons, but decidedly less expensive than European equivalents. Since Estonia lacked the financial resources for such a purchase at that time, the deal became possible only due to a favourable hire-purchase method, which took into account the expected economic growth of Estonia.

The associated opportunities for increased economic, political and security cooperation with Israel, that the negotiated arms deal may have presented, were lost before they were fully envisaged. The Estonian side leaked details of the contract, thereby violating the agreement. Estonian revanchist ‘former’ politicians, shoddy post-Soviet media and the ill-informed public have mostly attacked the Israeli weapons deal over the last 20 years, even resorting, at times, to antiSemitic comments.

However, this deal was one of the most significant achievements of our first constitutional government. It was a breakthrough in arming the Estonian Defence Forces and sent a strong signal to Western security decision-makers, who were compelled to recognize Estonia as a partner to be taken seriously. I am personally proud to have contributed to landing the deal, which was endorsed by President Lennart Meri in Tallinn and Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in Tel Aviv. Even today (2014) our Israeli arms are an important element in the arsenal of the Estonian Defence Forces.