The Czech Ambassador Interview

On the occasion of the European Week of Sport, Diplomatic Info team lead by the Publisher/CEO, Dr. Elvis Enyioko, had an interview with H. E. Zdenek Krejci, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Czech Republic to Nigeria, at the Czech Embassy Abuja. Find excerpt of the interview;

Good morning Ambassador, thank you for your invitation to cover this event. Can you please introduce yourself to our audience?

I am glad for this possibility to speak about the activities of the Czech Embassy in Abuja. Concerning myself, I was born in the former Czechoslovak Socialist Republic and I studied Economics at the School of Economics in capital of Slovakia, Bratislava. My interests were always in global affairs, history and geography. Therefore after the fall of the socialist regime in my country, I realized the new opportunities a realized a “mid-career” study of  international relations at the School of Advanced International studies in Washington, United States of America. After that, in 1996, I enlisted to the Czech ministry of foreign affairs.

Your Excellency, on Friday 30^th September 2022, the Embassy of the Czech Republic Abuja celebrated the European Week of Sport at the Brazilian Embassy, what is the significance of this celebration in Nigeria? Is also commendable that this event is been held in honour of Emil Zapotek, who set 18 world records during his life time, holding the 10,000 meter record from 1949 to 1954.

European Union and its member states are oriented not only on the cooperation in economic and political spheres, but we promote also culture and sports.  The European Sport Week is quite interesting because its aim is to encourage young people to develop physical activities, especially now when they spend most of their time in front of a computer and on the mobile phones. That is why we consider as quite important to orientate young people on physical activities. It is a coincidence that this year the European Sport Week is taking place at the same time that we commemorate the anniversary 100^th anniversary of birth of the world-famous Czech runner, Emil Zatopek. We used this opportunity to combine these two activities.  

The first one were the running competitions for 200 meters, which is the track that Zatopek used to start his training. Ten schools in Abuja participated at the competition. The second activity was screening, at its African premiere, the new Czech film about Emil Zatopek. At the event participated also the winners of competition from each school, both females and males. They were awarded with diplomas and vouchers for Bata shoes, the well-known company, founded in the pre-war Czechoslovakia. The awards were given to them by the Czech Ambassador and the Ambassador of the European Union (EU).

The movie is very well done, reflecting different stages of life of Zatopek It depicts his career and achievements as a sportsman, but it also reflects the time and life of the period – in the socialist time you couldn’t do anything only  by yourself,  you had to be involved in state activities, if you wanted or not. Even as a leading person in sports, Zatopek had to do very painful compromises with the socialist regime and its secret police. We felt it was interesting to show the film and I strongly recommend it to everyone interested to see the situations in a communist country in the second half of the 20^th Century.

Of course we remembered especially Emil Zatopek´s achievements as a sportsman. The peak of his sport career was at  the Helsinki Olympics in 1952, where he won the gold medal in the 5,000 meters, 10,000 meters and the marathon (42 195 m). To this day, he is the only athlete to win three gold medals in a long distance running at the same Olympics.

Congratulation Your Excellency on the assumption of the Czech Republic Presidency of the EU Council. What should the EU and other countries of the world expect from the Czech Presidency of the EU Council?

We have been preparing for the EU Presidency long time in advance. This is actually the second time that the Czech Republic is holding the EU Presidency, first it was in 2009. The war in Ukraine has made to modify our priorities, even if the general direction is the same. But we have to strengthen our efforts in moderation of negotiations among member countries concerning the war in Ukraine and related energy crisis. There are issues as Ukrainian war refugees,   support of Ukrainian Defense, post-war recovery, re-enforcement of EU defense capacities, strengthening of resilience in many areas. These policies are well integrated together, as for the geographical priorities, but I would like to underline that our priority is also to work closer in the Sahel countries in the wider sense and in the Pacific region.

What are your priorities for your diplomatic assignment to Nigeria?

In the recent past, when the world was not so much in strain, the Czech Republic, as well as many other countries, considered as the main task of its diplomacy the support of economic cooperation. The war in Ukraine and other conflicts has shown that trade and economic cooperation are important, but that we cannot neglect the political and defense dimensions of diplomatic activities. Therefore, my Embassy supports trade and economic cooperation between Nigeria and the Czech Republic but we continue in effort to strengthen our very good political relations and cooperation in the sector of defense as well. We have quite good base to do it by the experienced staff of the Embassy in Abuja, representation of the state organization for support of business CzechTrade, and soon to be opened honorary consulate in Lagos.

In the trade area, Czech Republic is very strong in the machinery sector, in the defense sector – we have very good trainer jets and other types of arms and equipment. The range of goods that we are importing to Nigeria is actually very wide, from the razor blades, through advance purification systems for water purification, to the already mentioned aviation systems. Czech companies are also well known and strong in the sector of IT, especially software for computers, we have some very good software companies creating antivirus software.

Other forms or areas of the economic cooperation are agriculture; all three agricultural universities in the Czech Republic have tropical agriculture departments that cooperate very closely with their African counterparts. We are likewise strong in the health sector, where we have developed strong cooperation with many African countries. The volume of trade between Nigeria and the Czech Republic is about 100 million dollars a year, we wish to increase it.

Are there any current educational or cultural exchange programs between both our countries?

Czech universities are quite popular among Nigerian students. Currently there are about 1,000 Nigerian students studying in Czech Republic, in Bachelors, Masters and PhD programs.

The technical and science programs are on a very high level, we have cooperation in the field of technical science. I have to mention also the cooperation between the Technical Agency of the Czech Republic and the Nigerian National Agency for Science and Engineering Infrastructure (NASENI), as well as cooperation with several Czech technical universities.

Czech Republic is one of the important players in the cooperation of the European cultural cluster EUNIC with Nigerian Museums. This year, there was an important residency program for Nigerian museum professionals, who had a unique opportunity to visit and work in several museums in Europe, including Czech Republic.

Your Excellency, at the close of your diplomatic assignment and return to your home country, what achievements will you want to look back in satisfaction?

There are some easily defined achievements that one could declare as its own, for instance a growth of trade volume, or a number of important visits.  But real impact of the work of myself, and of the Embassy is not so easy to measure. I will be satisfied, when by the end of my mission we would have had some high-ranking visits, which strengthen our cooperation, there would be more of Czech and Nigerian companies doing business in growing number of sectors, and there will be more contacts between our educational and cultural institutions. And not at least, when there will be more of Nigerians, who are friends of the Czech Republic and are interested having contacts with us.

Thank you Your Excellency for your time, it has been very insightful speaking with you