by STEVEN G. TAYLOR
Pavol Sepelak, Czech Republic’s Ambassador to Latvia
Acting as a conduit to the three Baltic States, newly appointed Ambassador of the Czech Republic, Ambassador Pavol Sepelak to Latvia, recently sat down with The Baltic Times to discuss his background, diplomatic experience, and vision of “enlarging cooperation” between members of the Visegrad Group – of which the Czech Republic currently chairs the presidency – and the Baltics. Ambassador Sepelak comes to his Riga posting with a colorful diplomatic background. Prior to Latvia, he was Czech Ambassador to Pakistan following the death of the previous Czech Republic Ambassador, Dr. Ivo Zdarek, who was killed along with 53 others in the Karachi Marriott Hotel Taliban blast of September 2008 in Islamabad.
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Mr. Ambassador, now that you have settled into your new posting, what are the goals that you have set for your responsibility in the bilateral relationship between the Czech Republic and Latvia?
Latvia is a friendly country having many historical links and parallels with the Czech Republic. I consider it not only a great privilege and honor to serve in such a wonderful country, with no clouds in our bilateral relations, but also see many opportunities to develop and to enlarge an already solid base of our successful and multi-faceted ties. In addition, our membership in EU and NATO gives both of us a very reliable and promising platform to deepen and enhance mutual cooperation. Right now the Czech Republic holds the presidency of the so-called Visegrad Group countries [the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia] and we are very active in getting closer and deeper cooperation with the Baltic countries. We have a lot of common interests and it is always better to defend them in Brussels in such a larger group. This year we had in Prague a common meeting of Ministers of Foreign Affairs on March 5, and we intend to organize other meetings on the level of prime ministers at the end of June. We do have intensive contacts also between parliamentarians. By the end of April the first deputy chairman of the Czech Senate, Mr. Sobotka, is coming to Latvia and in the second half of the year we expect the visit of the speaker of the Saeima in Prague. In a period of financial and economic crises I definitely put emphasis on the economic side of our relations, giving priority to new trade and business opportunities. Although the overall volume of our mutual trade, approximately 220 million euros, is bigger than our trade with Pakistan, that is a country of almost 200 million habitants, where I have served before, I do consider that existing opportunities and needs on both sides are far from being fully utilized. In the relatively short period of time I have been living in Latvia I had the chance to visit several regions and municipalities which confirmed their “hunger” for trade, investment and industrial cooperation. The Czech Republic is a traditionally highly industrialized country and has much to offer. In addition to already active big companies like Skoda and CKD, I would like to focus on enlarging cooperation between small and medium enterprises. They are the ones who really need more of our help and assistance.
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