Miroslav Lajčák (born 20 March 1963) is čáa Slovak politician and diplomat, former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. In addition, Lajčák also served as President of the United Nations General Assembly for the 72nd session from 2017 until 2018.
A key figure in the mediation of the post-conflict crises in the Western Balkans, Lajčák also served as Executive Assistant to the UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for the Balkans from 1999 to 2001. He negotiated, organized and supervised the referendum on the independence of Montenegro in 2006 on behalf of the European Union.
From 2007 to 2009, Lajčák served as High Representative of the International Community and European Union Special Representative in Bosnia and Herzegovina. During his tenure, Bosnia and Herzegovina signed the landmark Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union.
Currently Lajčák is the EU Special Representative for the Belgrade-Pristina Dialogue and other Western Balkan regional issues, a position he assumed on 2 April 2020.
Biography
Education and private life
Lajčák attended primary school in Stará Ľubovňa. In 1977 his family moved to Bratislava, where he enrolled in grammar school on Bilíková Street. He finished the final year of his secondary education at grammar school in Banská Štiavnica. Later he studied law at the Comenius University in Bratislava for a year before he obtained a master's degree in international relations from the Moscow State Institute of International Relations (MGIMO). As a student, he joined the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia. He also studied at the George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany.
He has received several state honours, including the Order of the Yugoslav Star, 1st Class in 2005, the Order of Honour of the Republic of Moldova in 2014, the Order of the Montenegrin Great Star in 2016, the Royal Order of the Polar Star awarded by Swedish King Carl XVI Gustaf in 2020 and the Order Star of Romania in the rank Grand Officer also in 2020.
Lajčák has also received honorary doctorates by the following institutions: UNWE University of National and World Economy (Bulgaria), University of Mostar (Bosnia and Herzegovina), MGIMO Moscow State Institute of International Relations (Russia), National University of Political Studies and Public Administration (Romania) and University of Montenegro (Montenegro).
Apart from his native Slovak, Lajčák is fluent in English, German, Russian, French and the South Slavic languages, including Bulgarian.
Diplomatic career (1988–2005) A member of the Communist Party, Lajčák joined the Czechoslovak foreign ministry in 1988. Between 1991 and 1993 Lajčák was posted to the Czechoslovak and subsequently Slovak embassy in Moscow.
Upon his return to Slovakia in 1993 to the newly established Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Slovakia, he took an active part in forming the national Foreign Service. He became Director of the Cabinet of the Foreign Minister and later on Director of the Cabinet of the Prime Minister Jozef Moravčík.
In 1994, he was appointed Slovak Ambassador to Japan, becoming the youngest-ever Head of Diplomatic Mission of Slovakia. At the age of 31, he was also the youngest foreign ambassador in Japan. In 1998 after his posting to Japan he returned to the Foreign Ministry to become for the second time Director of Slovakia Foreign Minister’s Cabinet.
His international engagements started in 1999 when he served as the Executive Assistant to the United Nations Secretary–General ́s Special Envoy for the Balkans, Eduard Kukan (until 2001).
Between 2001 and 2005, Lajčák was based in Belgrade as Slovakia's Ambassador to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (later Serbia and Montenegro), with accreditation also on Albania and the Republic of Macedonia.
Following his term in Belgrade, he was named Political Director at the Foreign Ministry of Slovakia (2005-2007).
Supervisor of Montenegro's independence referendum (2005) In 2005 the EU diplomacy chief Javier Solana called Lajčák to supervise the 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, which was approved with a 55.5% of favourable votes. Serbs and Montenegrins remember him as a tough though fair negotiator .