Czech President visited China, attended Belt and Road Cooperation Forum
13.05.2019 / 17:39 | Aktualizováno: 13.05.2019 / 17:52
The President of the Czech Republic Miloš Zeman paid a visit to China from 25th to 28th April 2019 to meet with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and to participate at the Second Belt and Road Forum in Beijing. The President was accompanied by five ministers including the Vice Premier Richard Brabec and a numerous business delegation. Several important events took place during the visit including the opening reception on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Czech-China relations, business forum and leaders’ roundtable on financial cooperation. The ministers held bilateral negotiations with their Chinese counterparts. Wide range of contracts and agreements were signed between Czech and Chinese counterparts. Furthermore, the President attended the official opening of the Beijing International Horticultural EXPO 2019.
The main purpose of the visit was the participation of the President Miloš Zeman in the Second Belt and Road Forum for International Cooperation which was attended by the presidents and prime ministers of 7 European countries, the Secretary-General of the United Nations or the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund.
The President met for the eighth time with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on April 28th. Five ministers - Richard Brabec (Vice Premier and Minister of the Environment), Miroslav Toman (Minister of Agriculture), Dan Ťok (Minister of Transport), Marta Nováková (Minister of Industry and Trade) and Antonín Staněk (Minister of Culture) – were present at the bilateral meeting as well. The Memorandum on the establishment of representative offices of trade promotion organizations in each other’s country between the Ministry of Trade and Industry of the Czech Republic and the Ministry of Commerce of the PRC was signed during the meeting. Furthermore, the document containing updated bilateral list of projects under the Belt and Road Initiative was exchanged. In addition to the meeting of Presidents, the ministers met individually with their Chinese counterparts and discussed the specific areas of cooperation.
The opening reception on the occasion of the commencement of the celebrations of the 70th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations was held at the Embassy of the Czech Republic and jointly opened by the Czech President and Vice Premier of the China Sun Chunlan. The event was attended by more than 400 guests, including prominent figures of political, cultural and business spheres of both countries.
During the official visit to China, President Zeman held talks with the Governor of the Bank of China, the founder of Huawei, representatives of CITIC, PBOC, CBIRC and Wang Huning, one of the most influential members of the Communist Party.