Martin Košatka

Martin Košatka was born in 1965 in Prague. He studied at the Faculty of Science and the Faculty of Arts of Charles University (1983-1988) and completed his postgraduate education at the Faculty of Science in 1989-1992. He started his working career there as a researcher in the field of mineral economics.

In 1994, he joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic at the UN Department, where he gained a lot of valuable experience during the Czech membership in the UN Security Council. Two years later he became Deputy Director of the Department and then its Director. From 1997 to 2001 he was in Ottawa as Deputy Head of Mission. On his return to headquarters, as Director of the Security Policy Department, he was involved in the formulation of Czech security policy in response to changes in the security environment after 11 September 2001. In 2003-2004, when Czechia was joining the EU he served as Political Director of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (Director General of the Security and Multilateral Section) and his main task was the successful integration of his country into the EU Common Foreign and Security Policy.

His next foreign assignment (starting in 2004) was as Ambassador to the Kingdom of Spain and the Principality of Andorra. After returning from Madrid, where he was also the Czech Republic's Permanent Representative to the United Nations World Tourism Organisation, he held the post of Director of the Department of Northern and Eastern European Countries at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs between 2009 and 2012.

After returning from another foreign mission (Ambassador to Croatia in 2012-2016), he started working as the director of another of the three European territorial departments of the MFA, the Department of South and South-Eastern Europe. In addition, in 2018 he was appointed to the post of Junior Deputy Minister, European Section (from January 2023 Deputy Director General of the European Section).

Since August 2024, he has been Ambassador to Romania.

Ambassador Košatka speaks English, Spanish, Croatian and Russian. He is a recipient of the Cross of Merit of the Minister of Defence of the Czech Republic (2003), the Silver Plaque of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic (2003), the Croatian Order of Prince Branimir with Ribbon (2016) and the Spanish Order of Isabel of Castile (Officer's Cross; 2020). He has three children with his wife Lenka.