(TASR ) – Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Ministry state secretary Peter Burian has become the EU’s special representative for Central Asia.

Peter Burian

The council of the EU’s foreign affairs ministers on March 16 agreed with High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini’s proposal to nominate Burian for the post, Slovak Foreign and European Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák announced as cited by the TASR newswire.

“You have to be really good to make it in the competition of [the EU’s] 28 member countries, apart from having in mind that Slovakia is a small country,” said Lajčák in reference to Burian’s appointment. “I view this as a high appreciation for Slovak diplomacy.”

Born in Hlohovec, Peter Burian graduated in Oriental Studies at St. Petersburg University in the USSR and entered the service of the Czechoslovak foreign ministry in 1983. Following the break-up of Czechoslovakia on 1 January 1993, he was appointed chargé d’affaires at the newly independent Slovakia’s embassy in Washington, D.C. and, shortly after, deputy chief of mission. In 1999, he became the Slovak Ambassador to NATO, based in Brussels, Belgium. He was also Slovakia’s permanent representative to the UN from 22 December 2004 to November 2008 and sat on the Security Council when Slovakia was a Member (being the Security Council President for the month of February 2007). He became the Slovak Ambassador to the US in December 2008.

Before the European External Action Service was set up in late 2009, it was Kubiš who served as the EU’s special representative for Central Asia, while Lajčák had a similar post in Bosnia and Herzegovina.