Archive: Foreign policy | Diplomacy

The Czech Republic has joined other EU member states in halting weapons exports to Turkey over its military offensive in northern Syria. The Czech foreign minister on Monday urged Turkey to halt the offensive and open the door to negotiations aimed at finding a political solution to the conflict.

The Czech Republic has halted arms exports to Turkey in response to Ankara's incursion into northern Syria, Interior Minister Jan Hamáček (Social Democrats) announced via Twitter on Monday evening, following a government meeting. Trade Minister Karel Havlíček, whose ministry had published the country's arms export figures earlier that day, said that armaments exports to Turkey only make up around CZK 140 million annually.

The news comes after meeting of the European Union's foreign ministers in Luxembourg, where member states pledged to suspend weapons exports to Turkey, but did not go as far as to implement a formal EU-wide arms embargo. During which Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček (Social Democrats) told journalists that he will propose to Prime Minister Andrej Babiš that the Czech Republic take part in an arms embargo on Turkey.

Czech-Chinese relations have been in the news a lot lately, but how have they really developed over the decades? And how should we view Chinese moves to develop a new high-tech form of totalitarianism involving facial recognition and “social credit”? I discussed those issues with Professor Olga Lomová, head of the Department of Sinology at Charles University’s Faculty of Arts. But I first asked the country’s leading sinologist what had led her to the field.

Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomáš Petříček summoned the Turkish ambassador for a meeting on Monday to reiterate the European Union’s priority of finding a diplomatic solution to the ongoing crisis in Syria and called on Turkey to halt its ongoing military operations in the region.

An official statement posted on the ministry’s website on Monday morning expressed particular concern over the violent death of the Kurdish politician Hevrin Khalaf on Saturday and those of many other civilians. The Czech Republic respects Turkey’s right to defend its border, but strongly opposes the massive military intervention, the statement goes on to say.

The Czech Republic’s top officials met to clear up the country’s stand on a number of a hot foreign policy issues on Thursday, voicing condemnation of the Turkish military offensive in northern Syria and rejecting President Zeman’s proposal for the Czech Republic to revoke its recognition of Kosovo as an independent state.

A simmering row between Prague and Beijing has finally come to a head. After the former announced a decision to terminate a sister city agreement with the Chinese capital, the country’s embassy said late on Wednesday night that it had abrogated the document itself. But can the dispute actually harm Prague?

Czech Foregin Minister Tomáš Petříček and his German counterpart Heiko Maas met in Prague on Monday, where they signed a joint Czech-German Strategic Dialog statement to be followed for the next two years. Strategic co-operation is to be followed in the areas of research, education, transport, climate issues and security.

Mr. Petříček said that the Czech Republic is also looking to involve Germany more in Visegrad Four negotiations.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš wound up his five day working visit to the United States at the 9/11 memorial in New York where he and his wife Monika paid tribute to the victims of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre 18 years ago.

Laying down a white rose in memory of the 2,750 people killed, Mr. Babiš stressed the importance of remembering this terrible memento because terrorism was a threat to all nations.

The countries of the world should remember this day and unite in the fight against international terrorism, Mr. Babiš said.

The Czech prime minister represented the Czech Republic at this week’s session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.

The Ukrainian embassy in Prague has urged the Czech authorities to denounce a visit to Russian- occupied Crimea by a Czech delegation, which negotiated the possibility of organizing tourist trips to the region.

According to the embassy this is not only a transgression against Ukrainian laws, but possibly also violates the EU sanctions against Russia.

According to Denik N the delegation included former Communist Party deputy chair Josef Skála and writer Lenka Procházková.

The embassy claims that representatives of Ukraine’s Ruthenian community in the Transcarpathian region, whom President Zeman recently received in Prague, were also involved in the talks.

Ukraine considers Ruthenians a pro-Russian colony which threatens the integrity of the country.

Foreign policy issues topped the agenda of a meeting between President Miloš Zeman and Prime Minister Andrej Babiš on Monday evening.

Mr. Babiš said the consultations had covered a broad range of issues including a planned summit of Visegrad heads of state in Prague in October, Mr. Babiš‘ participation in the UN General Assembly in New York and the president’s recent visit to Serbia during which Mr. Zeman said he wanted to discuss the possibility of renouncing the Czech recognition of an independent Kosovo with Czech top officials.

Prime Minister Babiš, who said earlier that he saw no reason to change the Czech position on Kosovo, said he had listened to the president‘s arguments and promised that the matter would be put to the country’s top officials at one of the regular meetings held to coordinate foreign policy matters.