ICDS board chair and defense ministry chancellor Kristjan Prikk, says he is confident Kannik will continue the institute's development.

"Indrek Kannik's lengthy experience in the field and at, among other things, the defense ministry, various stints as an MP and the defense adviser to the president's office empower him to represent Estonia's defense and security policy issues both in Estonia and abroad," Prikk said.

Kannik, who has been working as analysis director at the Estonian office of the Eastern Partnership (EaP) – a joint EU initiative aimed at forging relations with former Soviet nations on the union's eastern border and in the Caucasus region – said of his appointment that the ICDS has grown over the past 15 years into one of the Baltic Sea region's leading defense and foreign policy think-tanks.

"The world is currently tense. In this situation, the ICDS' task is to explain these changes as precisely as possible, both in Estonian and outside," he said.

The ICDS, together with its subsidiary, the Estonian Institute of Foreign Policy (Eesti Välispoliitika Instituut), provides security, defense policy research both in Estonia and to Estonian partners abroad. It is also responsible for the annual Lennart Meri conference, high-level national defense courses, the annual Baltic Defense Conference, and it publishes its own newsletter, Diplomaatia.

Its board consists of Reform MP and Riiigkogu foreign affairs committee chair Marko Mihkelson, Peeter Kuimet, security adviser to the president, and Indrek Sirp, Director of the coordination of national security and defense management at the government office, former finance minister deputy secretary-general Dmitri Jegorov, and former foreign ministry secretary general Rainer Saks, as well as Kristjan Prikk as chair.

Kannik's first day in his new role will be November 23.

-- 

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!