On November 5, President Milos Zeman met with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in Shanghai already for the seventh time. At the beginning of the talks, President Zeman praised the past meetings with the Chinese president. President Xi congratulated the Czech Republic on the recent 100th anniversary of the founding of the Czechoslovakia. He expressed his hopes that the second Mr. Zeman would allow to continue to improve the relations between the two countries and that strategic partnership between the Czech Republic and China will continue to develop.

During the meeting, the President Zeman expressed his wish that the Foreign Ministers of both countries work on the implementation of important bilateral activities, especially the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission, which in integral component of the strategic partnership between Czech Republic and China. During the meeting, Milos Zeman accepted an invitation forthcoming Belt and Road Initiative Summit in April 2019.

Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomas Petricek, Minister of Industry Marta Novakova, Minister of Transport Dan Tok and Minister of Agriculture Miroslav Toman attended bilateral talks. Ms. Klara Jurcova, Chargé d Affaires, MFA State Secretary Miloslav Stasek, President of the Chamber of Commerce of the Czech Republic Vladimir Dlouhy, and the President of Czech-Chinese Chamber of Mutual Cooperation Jaroslav Tvrdik were also part of the Czech delegation at the meeting.

Another highlight of the visit was a bilateral meeting between Foreign Minister Tomas Petricek with Wang Yi, State Counsellor and Foreign Minister of China. Minister Petricek pointed out that countries are strategic partners since 2016. In this context, he suggested April 2019 as a possible date for the first meeting of the Intergovernmental Commission. Future bilateral meetings and the Intergovernmental Commission would then focus on important topics of mutual concern, including aviation, health, agriculture, culture, education, and tourism.

Apart from the topics related to economic cooperation, talks also focused on human rights issues. “A genuine partnership between countries should not avoid an open discussion of any issues, including human rights,” emphasized Minister Petricek during the meeting. Such open discussions should take place both bilaterally and multilaterally.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi appreciated the significant contributions of the Czech Republic within the Belt and Road Initiative and the 16+1 platform. Thanks to the positive attitude, there is a great interest by China in the Czech Republic. In response to human rights issues, Minister Wang praised the interest of the Czech Republic to cooperate with China and showed readiness to include human rights issues in the bilateral discussions.