US diplomat George P. Kent has been nominated as the new ambassador to Estonia by the White House, ending nearly four years of US diplomatic vacuum in Tallinn. Kent's nomination is subject to approval by the Senate.

White House announced Kent's nomination on Friday.

George P. Kent, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor, most recently served as Deputy Assistant Secretary in the European and Eurasian Bureau at the U.S. Department of State.

Previously, he was Deputy Chief of Mission in Kyiv, Ukraine. Prior to that, Kent was the Senior Anti-Corruption Coordinator in the State Department’s European Bureau. He has also served as Director for Europe and Asia in the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement. Since joining the Foreign Service in 1992, Kent has served in U.S. Diplomatic Missions in Tashkent, Uzbekistan; Warsaw, Poland; Bangkok, Thailand (twice), and Kyiv, Ukraine (twice).

Other State Department assignments include Special Assistant to the Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, Operations Center Watch Officer, and Thai desk officer.

Kent holds an A.B. from Harvard in Russian History and Literature, an M.A. from Johns Hopkins’ SAIS, and an M.S. from the National Defense University’s Eisenhower School. He speaks Ukrainian, Russian, and Thai. Kent is a Kirby Simon Fund Trustee.

The US has not had an ambassador in Estonia since 2018, when James D. Melville announced his resignation, over his dissatisfaction with then-President Donald Trump's statements about NATO and EU allies.

In October 2019, businessman William Ellison Grayson was reported as nominee to replace Melville, but apparently did not take up office in Tallinn.

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