Eduard Kukan: The Slovak former foreign minister died after a heart failure
Eduard Kukan first took over the leadership of the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs in 1994 in the government of the then Prime Minister Jozef Moravčík. He was also the head of Slovak diplomacy in the two governments of Mikuláš Dzurinda.
Was Member of the Slovak Parliament, between 2009 and 2014 he served as a Member of the European Parliament. In 2004, he unsuccessfully ran for president of Slovakia. He supported Slovakia’s accession to the EU and NATO and advocated deepening cooperation between the Czech Republic and Slovakia after their division.
Kukan was born on December 26, 1939 in Trnovec nad Váhom in southwestern Slovakia. He first studied at the Faculty of Law of Comenius University in Bratislava, graduated from the Moscow Institute of International Relations in 1964 and later obtained a doctorate in law at Charles University in Prague.
Until 1989, Kukan was a member of the Communist Party, and until 1990 he was in various senior positions in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague. His expertise was sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America, but he also served as the Czechoslovak ambassador to the United Nations in New York.
After the disintegration of Czechoslovakia, he represented only Slovakia and later held several senior positions in the UN. Between 1993 and 1994, for example, he chaired the Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee of the General Assembly.
The current Slovak Foreign Minister Ivan Korčok also mourned Kukan’s death. “He was an exceptional man and a diplomat who stood at the birth of our foreign service,” said. According to Korchok, Kukan was “too fundamental a decision that belongs to our accession to the EU and NATO.”
Eduard Kukan was known for his humor and heart, but also for his diplomatic ways. Fluent in English, Russian, Spanish or Swahili. He was an honorary doctor of law at Upsala American College in New Jersey and holder of the Order of St. Gregory the Great, which Pope John Paul II gave him. awarded for his role in the preparation of the basic agreements between the Slovak Republic and the Vatican.