Estonia appoints new foreign minister

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves officially approved Marina Kaljurand's nomination on Wednesday as Estonia's 29th foreign minister.

Kaljurand began her career at the foreign ministry in 1991 and has since worked as Estonian ambassador to the United States and Mexico, Kazakhstan, Russia, Israel and Canada, Estonian Public Broadcasting reported.

Fluent in both English and Russian, she played an important role as an expert and negotiator in the process of Russian troops' withdrawal from Estonia in 1994 and in negotiations on land and maritime boundary agreements between Estonia and Russia, as well as in the accession negotiations of Estonia to the European Union (EU).

Kaljurand earned her law degree from the University of Tartu and also has a diploma from the Estonian School of Diplomacy and an master of arts degree in International Law and Diplomacy from Tufts University.

She is a founding member of the Estonian branch of the International Law Association and of the Estonian branch of Women in International Security.

Kaljurand, the ruling Reform Party's candidate to replace the resigning Keit Pentus-Rosimannus as the nation's foreign minister, said her top priority will be to keep the EU unity intact in the current climate.

Former Foreign Minister Keit Pentus-Rosimannus resigned on July 1, following the Tallinn Circuit Court decision which made her partly liable for dept accumulated by her father's bankrupt company Autorollo. Endit