The aggravation of competition processes in international economic relations leads to the fact that individual business entities do not have the opportunity to effectively represent themselves abroad. In such circumstances, the importance of state support and promotion of national interests abroad significantly increases. The purpose of the article is to explore and analyse the practice of economic diplomacy in Slovakia from the point of view of an impartial researcher, aimed at improving the national system for promoting national interests abroad. To achieve this goal, the research is focused on following tasks: to consider and analyse the main trends in the formation and development of economic diplomacy in Slovakia, to perform a brief analysis of the practice of foreign economic activity in Slovakia, highlighting its main positive and negative aspects; to summarize the main strengths of the Slovak system of promoting national interests abroad in order to recommend them for use in the practice of other countries, in particular Ukraine. Methodology. In the process of preparation the article, methods of scientific abstraction, observation, synthesis, generalization, as well as statistical and economic methods were used to determine the effectiveness of Slovak foreign economic activity and the influence of the state on it. The information and analytical base for the study includes the regulatory framework of the European Union and the Slovak Republic, materials and analytical reports of international organizations dealing with the considerate issues (UNCTAD, WTO, World Bank), regulatory and statistical data of Slovak state authorities, the results of research by modern scientists from different countries. The results of the study show that the economic diplomacy of the Slovak Republic within the framework of its EU membership is an important tool for the success of the country’s foreign economic policy, ensuring its export expansion in international markets and intensive investment cooperation with foreign investors. Particularly remarkable is the current practice of staffing institutions of economic diplomacy in Slovakia, which is based on qualified training of economic diplomats within the framework of a full-fledged university programmes. In the prospect professional support for the structures of Slovak economic diplomacy and its personnel, professional, structural and financial support from the Ministry of economy becomes a requirement. The practical implications of the scientific research is to find out the current state of economic diplomacy mechanisms in individual European countries, trends in their development and potential consequences for the economic potential of other states (in particular, Ukraine) based on the introduction of effective mechanisms for promoting national interests abroad. Value/originality. The mechanisms and practices of promoting Slovakia’s foreign economic activity in foreign economic relations deserve the attention of the relevant state structures of Ukraine regarding the unification of regulatory standards and the formation of appropriate mechanisms for protecting national interests, including in the context of the implementation of the Ukraine–European Union Association Agreement. In addition, this study has significant potential for further consideration in subsequent scientific publications.
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