Ana Krstinovska holds a PhD in Political Science – International Relations program from Ss. Cyril and Methodius University in Skopje, specializing in the relations of the Western Balkans with the EU and China.
At present she is the President of ESTIMA, North Macedonia-based think tank and consultancy. Formerly she was State Secretary for EU Affairs in the Government of North Macedonia, First Secretary in the Mission of the Republic of North Macedonia to the EU in Brussels and Advisor for international cooperation to the Prime Minister. In 2021, she became a member of the Permanent Strategic Foreign Policy Council in the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of North Macedonia.
Since 2018, she has been working in the think tank community on a number of research and capacity building projects, combining her first-hand experience in policy making with the academic and civil society perspective. Her training and consultancy assignments include topics such as EU’s enlargement policy towards the Western Balkans, European funds, and good governance. Specifically, she has piloted the introduction of EU-related contents in 4 high schools across North Macedonia and advocated for enhanced inclusion of civil society organizations in the implementation of EU funds, especially in large infrastructure projects.
Her China portfolio revolves around China’s foreign policy, the Belt and Road Initiative and the China-CEE Cooperation Platform, with a particular focus on economic topics and soft power. She has also done pioneering research on China’s development assistance to the Western Balkans and China’s role in the issue of Kosovo’s statehood.
An alumna from the College of Europe in Bruges, Krstinovska was awarded with the InBev-Baillet Latour Foundation’s Award for best thesis on EU-China relations for 2013. She is a sinologist, with a specialization in Chinese language and literature from Beijing Foreign Studies University, and a member of the CHOICE network – China Observers in Central and Eastern Europe. Krstinovska has authored around 20 China-related publications and also received the Civil Society Scholar Award 2021 by the Open Society Foundations.
Krstinovska has been quoted by numerous renowned outlets, such as the South China Morning Post, Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, The Diplomat, Aktualne etc, and invited to present her research work on China in front of the US Congress. She is fluent in English, French, Chinese, Macedonian, Serbian/Croatian/Bosnian and understands Italian, Spanish and Bulgarian.
