I would like to express my gratitude

FAREWELL MESSAGE FROM H.E. MR. EMIL KRSTESKI, AMBASSADOR OF NORTH MACEDONIA

Your Excellencies, Dear Friends,

I am honoured to write you a farewell letter and inform you that on 30th April 2025, I completed my mission as Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador of the Republic of North Macedonia to the Czech Republic. On 1st May, I turned 66 years old – ready to be retired. However, I will continue to be active in the world of international relations and international law, and give some lectures at universities and institutes.

I was lucky to be appointed as Ambassador in the Czech Republic because the two countries have excellent overall relations and cooperation in any field on the bilateral and multilateral levels.

That means that my job as Ambassador was to build up the political and cultural relations and increase the economic ties.

From the very beginning of our independence, we were dedicated to becoming a full member of NATO and the EU. My country adopted Western values and legislation, and five years ago we became a full member state of NATO, where we have a Macedonian politician as a Deputy Secretary General. On our path towards NATO, we had strong and unconditional support from the Czech Republic, as we have now on our determination to start the negotiations with the EU. I spoke with President Pavel a couple of times, and he assured me that officials in Prague would continue to support us on our path to the EU, hoping that he will also officially visit the Republic of North Macedonia at the beginning of 2026.

My stay in the Czech Republic gave me a chance to build excellent relations with my colleagues at the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs (especially those dealing with relations with the Western Balkan countries), as well as with my colleagues from the Ministry of Industry and Trade and those from almost all Czech Government Ministries. I would like to express my gratitude to all of them. They helped me a lot in my everyday work.

The Republic of North Macedonia realised many projects with the Czech Republic during my almost year and a half mandate. We organised four Business and Invest Forums, as well as the third Joint Committee for economic cooperation. We realised several bilateral visits at a Ministry level and participations in international conferences in Prague. In 2024, we marked the 30th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations between the two countries with an official reception, where the Deputy Minister, Jan Marian, was a special participant and speaker.

We organised many cultural events and had excellent relations with many institutions, organisations, and universities. During September 2025, we are going to have the “Week of Macedonian Culture in Prague” with a lot of events and a lot of interactions with our large diaspora in the Czech Republic.

I would also like to take this opportunity to emphasise my sincere appreciation for the official and personal relations between all Missions and their countries, hoping that I have made a small contribution in that sense too.

I can say that I and my spouse, Dragana, who was the President of DSA (Diplomatic Spouse Association), maintain excellent relations with my colleagues from many countries, including from Czechia, and they will all be in our memories and in our hearts for a long time. And we will never forget the time that we spent in “Golden Prague”.

Emil Krsteski

Ambassador of North Macedonia to the Czech Republic (December 2023 – May 2025)