By Muhammad Sohail
New heads of missions will take up their posts in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and Croatia in the coming months. Václav Bartuška will go to London and Petr Gandalovič will head to Zagreb.
“I wish Václav Bartušek and Petr Gandalovič much success in their future work and I am pleased that they will represent us in these destinations, ” said Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský regarding the appointment. Both of them have already received agrément, i.e. approval to work in the host country.
Václav Bartuška began working for Czech diplomacy in 1999 and until 2001 was the Commissioner General of the Czech participation in the World Exhibition Expo 2000 in Hanover. From 2006 to the present, he has worked at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs as a special representative for energy security and in
2010 – 2014 also as a government representative for the expansion of the Temelín Nuclear Power Plant. He lectures at Czech and foreign universities and is the author of the book Polojasno (Partly Cloudy) about the work of the parliamentary investigative commission dealing with the intervention of the State Security on Národní třída on November 17 , 1989.
Petr Gandalovič joined the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1994, gradually becoming an advisor to the Minister and, in 1995-1997, Senior Director of the Economic and Information Section. Between 1997-2002, he headed the Consulate General of the Czech Republic in New York. He subsequently served as Mayor of Ústí nad Labem, in 2006 he was Minister for Regional Development, and in 2007-2009, Minister of Agriculture. In 2011, he returned to Czech diplomacy, serving as Ambassador to the United States of America from 2011-2016, and for the next four years, he headed the Permanent Mission of the Czech Republic to the OECD in Paris. For the past three years, he has been the Head of the Department of Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Václav Bartuška will take up his position in London during the summer of 2025, Petr Gandalovič will leave for Zagreb at the beginning of 2026.
