Prague, March 1 (CTK) – Hynek Kmonicek, head of Czech Presidential Office foreign affairs section, will become the new Czech ambassador to the United States as the Presidential Office yesterday received the official news that he received agrement, its spokesman Jiri Ovcacek said in a press release.
He said the Czech Embassy in Washington provided the news to the Presidential Office.
Kmonicek will replace Petr Gandalovic who left the post in January. According to previous information, Kmonicek is to take the post this month. His first task will probably be the preparation of the visit of Czech President Milos Zeman who is to meet U.S. President Donald Trump in the White House in late April.
Against the diplomatic rules, Zeman introduced Kmonicek as the future Czech ambassador to Washington during his trip to the USA last September. Zeman said then that he already signed Kmonicek’s credentials. The Czech Foreign Ministry refused to comment on it, saying Kmonicek has not received the agrement yet.
According to the standard procedure, the Czech foreign minister proposes a new ambassador to the government and if the government approves of the person, the proposal is submitted to the president who appoints the ambassador. The data on the new ambassador is sent to the host country, which gives its agrement within several weeks or months. Only then the name of the new ambassador is released.
Ovcacek said Kmonicek will maintain his position of Czech President Milos Zeman’s aide for foreign affairs.
Kmonicek is an experienced diplomat. He was Czech ambassador to the United Nations in New York (2001-06), Czech ambassador to India (2006-09) and Australia (2010-13).
The post of the U.S. ambassador to the Czech Republic is unoccupied as well. Andrew Schapiro left it on the day of Trump’s presidential inauguration.
Czech Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek said the post may remain unoccupied for some time because all Obama’s political diplomats, or about one third of the U.S. diplomatic corps, ended with the arrival of Trump in the White House.
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