Rafaela Prifti/
The new US Ambassador to Albania is David J. Kostelancik, a career member of the Senior Foreign Service with the rank of Minister-Counselor. Today’s Senate confirmation of his nomation by President Biden from earlier this year was uninimous. Kostelancik was serving as Foreign Policy Advisor to Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley.
He has been Deputy Chief of Mission and Chargé d’Affaires at the US Embassy in Budapest, Hungary. His previous assignments include Director of the Office of South Central European Affairs and Director of the Office of Russian Affairs, both in the Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs.
The overseas postings of Kostelancik in the past include the U.S. Mission to the OSCE and the U.S. Mission to NATO, the political office at U.S. Embassy in Tirana in early 90′, Albania and the U.S. Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, and two postings at the US Embassy in Moscow.
He is a graduate of the National War College, in his home statet of Illinois. He has earned a Master of Science at NWC National Defense University. David Kostelancik holds a Master of Arts degree from the University of Michigan, and a Bachelor of Arts degree from Northwestern University. He speaks Russian, Hungarian, Albanian, and Turkish.
The outgoing Ambassador Yuri Kim was an appointee of President Trump who served in Albania from 2020.