Both sides will be represented by Deputy Ministers of Foreign Affairs – Tzipi Hotovely on the Israeli side, Martin Tlapa, Deputy Minister for Non-European Countries, Economic and Development Cooperation, and Ivo Šrámek, Deputy Minister for Security and Multilateral Issues, on the Czech side. Apart from standard bilateral topics the discussions will concentrate on the preparations of the intergovernmental consultations (G2G), planned to take place in Prague later this year, on current challenges of the Middle East region and on the Israeli-Palestinian relations.

Czech and Israeli relations have a long tradition that goes back to the time before Israel was born and are tied to the name of Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk. The first President of Czechoslovakia was an advocate of creating a Jewish state in the historical homeland. He was the only politician of his status who visited the “Zionist project” in the then British Mandate of Palestine. The visit took place in the spring 1927. Since 1926 Czechoslovakia had its General Consulate in Jerusalem.