Toomas Hendrik Ilves (born December 26 1953) is an Estonian diplomat, politician, and journalist.

He was born in Stockholm, Sweden. He grew up in the United States, graduating from Leonia High School. He attended and received degrees from Columbia University and the University of Pennsylvania.

On December 2 1996 he became foreign minister of Estonia, serving until his resignation on September 30 1998. He then began campaigning for the centrist party The Moderates (now the Estonian Social Democratic Party ) in the parliamentary elections. In March 1999 after the elections, he became foreign minister again, serving until 2002. He supported Estonian membership in the European Union and succeeded in beginning negotiations which led to Estonia joining the European Union in 2004. During in 2001-2002 he was a People's Party Moderates leader. He resigned after been defeated in local administration election in 2002, October, when party won totaly of all votes only 4,4% share. In 2003. he was an observer member of the European Parliament, since 1. May a full member. In 2004, Ilves was elected to the European Parliament for the Estonian Social Democratic Party in a landslide. He sits with the Party of European Socialists group in the Parliament.

External links

Personal website

|- style="text-align: center;" | width="30%" |Preceded by:
Raul Mälk | width="40%" style="text-align: center;" |Minister of Foreign Affairs
1999 - 2002 | width="30%" |Succeeded by:
Kristiina Ojuland