The Czech government has approved Jan Havranek as the next ambassador to the United States, Respekt.cz reported on Friday. Havranek is the deputy of the current ambassador, Miloslav Stasek.
In other diplomatic appointments, Ales Vytecka, currently in charge of the ammunition initiative for Ukraine, will be posted to Finland. Marek Libricky, Director of the Asia-Pacific Department, is to go to India and Daniel Blazkovec, Deputy Minister of Defence, to Vietnam. They should start in 2026.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Daniel Drake did not want to comment on the appointments.
The ambassadors are proposed to the government by the foreign minister for approval, and subsequently also to the president. The appointment is signed by the president and the prime minister. The country to which the ambassador is to be sent must then agree to accept the ambassador.
“The process of selecting ambassadors is conducted in a classified mode until the recipient country grants its agreement, so I cannot comment on these matters,” Drake told Respekt.
Havranek is an expert on defence, security and hybrid threats. In the past, he worked in the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation and was then deputy to Defence Minister Jana Cernochova (ODS), responsible for strategic defence planning.
As director of the Agency for Intergovernmental Defence Cooperation (AMOS), Vytecka is responsible for the ammunition initiative, through which a coalition of countries led by the Czech Republic is arming Ukraine with artillery ammunition. In Finland, he would replace Adam Vojtech, who was health minister in the government of Andrej Babis (ANO).
Along with India, the Czech embassy in New Delhi also has a presence in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Eliska Zigova is currently serving as ambassador there. The current ambassador in Hanoi is Hynek Kmonicek, who headed the foreign department of the Presidential Office under President Milos Zeman.
