Czech Republic Appoints Ambassador to Pristina 15 Years into Kosovo’s Self-Declared Independence

Pristina, Kosovo (BETAPHOTO/ANDRIJA IGIC)

The Czech Republic will appoint its first ambassador to Pristina 15 years after Kosovo’s self-declared independence, in a move which has been so far blocked by the two former Czech presidents, Vaclav Klaus and Milos Zeman.

Incumbent Czech President Petr Pavel had appointed 26 new ambassadors to posts across the world, including Bohumil Mazanek, who would be serving in Kosovo, the Czech Foreign Ministry said in a statement on July 25. 

Mazanek is a career diplomat and a graduate of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. He has served as Czech ambassador to Lithuania, chargé d'affaires at the Czech Embassy in Thailand, and counsel general in Shanghai, China, and Katowice, Poland.

"The Ministry’s long-term policy is to maintain diplomatic relations with Kosovo at the highest level, because it is necessary to rectify the absurdness of the Czech Republic recognizing Kosovo’s independence and having an embassy in Kosovo, while having the ambassadorial post vacant," Czech Foreign Ministry’s spokesman Daniel Drake has said earlier.

So far, the Czech Republic Embassy in Pristina has maintained only the post of chargé d'affaires, because the two former presidents, Klaus and Zeman, were fierce opponents of the 2008 Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek’s cabinet decision to recognize Kosovo’s self-declared independence, despite harsh protests from the opposition and divisions within the ruling right-wing coalition.