President of the Senate Miloš Vystrčil, accompanied by senators Ladislav Faktor, Jan Žaloudík,  Ondřej Šimetka and the Chairman of the Czech Academy of Sciences Ms Eva Zažímalová visited the United Kingdom for a 3-days working visit. They were accompanied by a business delegation organized by the Czech Chamber of Commerce counting over 20 businessmen from various business fields.

President Vystrčil started of his visit on 18th November by opening Czech-British Business Forum organized at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in London. The Czech business delegation had the chance to learn about doing business in the United Kingdom after Brexit and met with local companies and officials.

President Vystrčil, accompanied by military attachés, then laid flowers at the Battle of Britain Memorial, in which 88 Czechoslovak pilots fought alongside their British colleagues.

The Senate delegation then headed to the Westminster Palace, where they held meetings with the Chairman of the House of Commons Foreign Committee Tom Tugendhat, Speaker of the House, Sir Lindsay Hoyle, and Lord Speaker of the House of Lords, Lord McFall of Alcluith. Mr Vystrčil became the first Senate president accepted by heads of both chambers of the British Parliament since Petr Pithart in 1998.

On Friday 19th, the delegation started the day with a work breakfast with Greg Hands, Minister of State for Business, Energy and Clean Growth. They later moved to the BBC Broadcasting House to learn more about how the BBC, as a public broadcasting corporation, deals with financing and disinformation in the times of increasing digitalization.

The rest of the day was dedicated to the Czech community in the United Kingdom, where President Vystrčil and his accompaniment met with the representatives of Czech communities in the UK, Czech university students in London and gave an opening speech at the opening session of the Society of Czech and Slovak Doctors in the United Kingdom

On Saturday, the delegation moved to Oxford, where they visited professor Paul Flather, known for his help to Czechoslovak opposition during the times of Communist Czechoslovakia, and professor Rajendra Chitnis and his students of Czech Studies at the Oxford University. President Vystrčil and his colleagues from the Senate then debated the Velvet Revolution and its legacy on a debate for the Oxford University students and concluded the visit with „Velvet Diner“, organized by the Oxford University Czech and Slovak Association.