BULLETIN

December 2017

 

Main news…

Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic: Martin Stropnický

On 13 December 2017, Prime Minister Babiš installed the new Foreign Minister, Martin Stropnický.

Martin Stropnický is the ninth Foreign Minister of the Czech Republic. He joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Czech and Slovak Federal Republic in 1990, studied at the Vienna Diplomatic Academy in 1990-1991, and remained in diplomatic service until 2002. Among other positions, he headed the Foreign Ministry’s Cultural Relations Section and served as Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Portugal (1993-1994), Italy (1994-1997) and the Holy See (1999-2002).

Following tenure as Culture Minister in the 1998 caretaker government, Martin Stropnický worked as artistic director at the Vinohrady Theatre (2003-2012). He has been a member of the Czech Parliament’s Chamber of Deputies since 2013, and in 2014-2017 he served as Defence Minister.  

Minister Stropnický speaks English, French and Italian and has a passive knowledge of German, Russian and Portuguese. 

Czech diplomacy in action…

Czech development assistance in Asia

Milan Hovorka, Czech Ambassador to Bangladesh (resident in New Delhi), visited Bangladesh on 28 November – 1 December 2017. The programme of his visit focused on Czech humanitarian and development assistance in the context of the refugee crisis in Bangladesh.

The Honorary Consul of the Czech Republic in Dhaka, Mr. A.S.M. Mohiuddin Monem, and his team played an irreplaceable role in organising the trip and scheduling the Ambassador’s meetings in Bangladesh. The programme included a visit to Dhaka’s Chalantika slum where the Czech Republic has recently supported a development assistance project.

 

The issues discussed by the Ambassador with his partners in Dhaka included bilateral relations, development of trade, refugee crisis in Bangladesh, and Czech humanitarian and development assistance.

The Ambassador visited children and mothers in Dhaka’s Chalantika slum, where the Czech Republic has recently supported an education project for children from needy families.  The project run by the NGO ADRA Bangladesh took place in 2015 and 2016.

 

 

Water and education – Czechia’s assistance in Central America

The Czech Embassy in Mexico implemented four development projects to improve the quality of life for the local people in Belize, El Salvador, Honduras and Nicaragua.

In El Salvador and Belize, the focus was on three schools selected by Czech diplomats (schools in Puerto El Flor and Chalatenango in El Salvador, and a school in Belize’s Orange Walk Town). The projects in El Salvador promoted sex and relationship education; the project in Belize encouraged pupils to take up music as an extracurricular activity, and provided quality Czech musical instruments for this purpose.  

 

In Honduras and Nicaragua, the focus was on the environment and especially on access to water. The project in Honduras helped build two wells in Ahuás municipality area, one of the poorest parts of the country; the project in Nicaragua supported Diriamba municipality’s efforts to deal with a semi-legal landfill site that pollutes the main local source of drinking water. The projects were greatly appreciated among the local people and contributed to development in a region that is not among the major ODA recipients.

From the life of the consular community at home and abroad...

1) Opening new honorary consulates of the Czech Republic

11 November 2017 - Opening of the Honorary Consulate in Kota Kinabalu (Malaysia). The  honorary consul heading this post is Mr. Vincent Tan; the consulate covers the state of Sabah.

12 October 2017 – Opening of the Honorary Consulate in Balti, Republic of Moldova. The honorary consul heading this post is Mr. Mihail Ceban; the consulate covers seventeen districts in northern Moldova.

23 October 2017 – Opening of the Honorary Consulate in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. The honorary consul heading this post is Mrs. Miluše Šašková-Pierce;

 

2) Closing down an honorary consulate of the Czech Republic  

31 October 2017 –The Honorary Consulate General in Philadelphia is closed down. The post was headed by Honorary Consul General Mr. Peter Rafaeli, an exceptional consul and a great person. One of the longest serving Czech honorary consuls in the United States, Mr. Rafaeli played a great role in furthering our country’s interests, especially through the American Friends of the Czech Republic.

 

3) Appointment of an honorary consul general

16 November 2017 – The Czech Foreign Minister promoted the Honorary Consulate in Casablanca (Morocco) to Honorary Consulate General and appointed Mr. Ahmed Lemzah as Honorary Consul General.

 

 

*    *    *    *    *  
Happy New Year Message

from Deputy Minister Martin Smolek

 

 

 

 

Dear Honorary Consuls General,

Dear Honorary Consuls,

 

Another year has passed since I last addressed you in this Bulletin. It is amazing how time flies. This has been a very busy year, full of challenges for all of us. The last parliamentary elections changed our country’s political landscape, with new parties gaining ground at the expense of the traditional ones. One of the results is a change in the post of Foreign Minister: Lubomír Zaorálek (Social Democrats) has been replaced by Martin Stropnický (ANO). 

 

Another important development – though not immediately related to “big” politics – was the passage of the Foreign Service Act. This new legislation, proposed by our Ministry, builds on the existing Civil Service Act. It reflects the specific requirements of our work and fundamentally changes some of the rules for service at home and abroad, including staff rotation, social security, selection process for postings abroad, and the availability of adequate positions for diplomats whose posting abroad has come to an end.

 

It is a pleasure to see how our network of honorary consulates keeps growing. We now have 202 honorary consulates and honorary consulates general. This year alone we opened (or reopened) eleven consulates (Plovdiv/Bulgaria, Kota Kinabalu/Malaysia, Panama City/Panama, Victoria/Canada, Cartagena de Indias/Colombia, Bishkek/Kyrgyzstan, Majuro/Marshall Islands, Balti/Moldova, Lincoln/United States, Miami/USA, and Khartoum/Sudan).

 

The Honorary Consulate in Linz/Austria has a new honorary consul at its head; the Honorary Consulate in Temple, Texas/United States was relocated to Houston. We keep looking for candidates for several vacant posts (e.g. Stuttgart and Malta). Our policy has been, and will be, to support the opening of honorary consulates wherever relevant and practical.

 

What I consider important, both for you and for consuls our embassies and consulates general, is that you should see each other regularly. I have attended, and will continue to attend, at least some of your conferences. They enrich us all, help us get to know each other and learn to work together. I know from my own experience that the best electronic communication channels cannot replace face-to-face discussion and informal exchange.

 

 The end of the year is the time to pause and take stock. I want to thank you all for your excellent cooperation and for all you have done for Czech diplomacy and Czech nationals. The Foreign Ministry is grateful for your role in furthering Czech interests and protecting the rights of our nationals abroad, and for your contribution in areas such as trade, cultural relations and development assistance. We owe you huge thanks for that.

Finally, let me wish you, your families and your colleagues a peaceful end of this year, and every health and happiness in 2018. I look forward to working with you in the coming year, and especially to meeting with some of you at regional consular conferences. 

 

Yours sincerely