President Miloš Zeman appointed Jakub Kulhánek foreign minister at Prague Castle on Wednesday afternoon. Mr. Kulhánek, who previously served as deputy interior minister, takes office amid a deepening crisis in Czech-Russian relations over the involvement of the Russian secret service in the deadly 2014 munition blasts at the Vrbětice depot. His predecessor in office Tomáš Petříček of the Social Democrats was dismissed after making an unsuccessful bid for the party leadership. Party leader and deputy prime minister, Jan Hamáček, stepped in as acting foreign minister during the change of guard.
At the ceremony in Prague Castle President Zeman suggested that Mr. Kulhánek focuses primarily on economic diplomacy and said that he was glad that the foreign minister has pledged to bring business representatives with him on trips aborad. Mr. Kulhánek said that his priorities are to ensure the continuity of Czech foreign policy, the Czech Republic’s orientation towards NATO and the European Union as well as achieving a wide ranging consensus on how the country conducts its foreign affairs.