Luik to become Foreign Ministry’s deputy secretary general
Most recently the director of Tallinn think tank International Centre for Defence and Security (ICDS) and potential presidential candidate of the conservative parties, Jüri Luik will begin as deputy secretary general in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Minister of Foreign Affairs Jürgen Ligi (Reform) confirmed to ERR on Wednesday that he had invited Luik personally, and that the ministry’s evaluation committee had made a formal offer to Luik as well.
“Jüri Luik is one of Estonia’s foremost and most respected foreign policy experts, and an experienced diplomat. We’re very glad that we can use his knowledge shaping foreign policy,” Ligi added.
Luik will join the ministry in May 2017 after the annual Lennart Meri Conference, which is one of the most important events on the agenda of the ICDS.
The position of deputy secretary general became available when President Kersti Kaljulaid asked its outgoing holder, Kyllike Sillaste-Elling, to become her foreign policy advisor. The director general of the Foreign Ministry’s political section, Paul Teesalu, is taking care of the position’s tasks in the interim.
Jüri Luik has been Estonia’s foreign minister in 1994-95, served twice as minister of defense in 1993 and again from 1999 to 2002, and has been Estonia’s ambassador to the United States, to Russia, and NATO.
Editor: Editor: Dario Cavegn