The government yesterday welcomed Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil’s announcement that he would lead a delegation to Taiwan at the end of August amid frayed relations between Prague and Beijing.
In the Czech Republic, the senate speaker is the second-highest-ranking official after the president, while the Czech Senate on May 20 passed a resolution supporting a visit by the senate president to Taiwan in a 50-1 vote.
Vystrcil formally announced his decision at a news conference yesterday, after the Reflex weekly magazine on Friday last week quoted him as saying that his determination to visit Taiwan was motivated by Beijing’s pressure.
He is to visit the nation from Aug. 30 to Sept. 5, the Czech News Agency (CTK) reported.
The agency quoted Vystrcil as saying that Czechs will either stick to their principles and values, or they will count coins, and he is inclined to stop counting coins, because otherwise they might find out they do not have any at all.
Vystrcil said he hopes that the Czech Ministry of Defense will allocate a Czech government plane for his trip as in other foreign missions and that late Czech senate speaker Jaroslav Kubera’s widow, Vera Kuberova, will take part in the trip, the CTK reported.
Kubera had planned to visit Taiwan in February, but died of a heart attack on Jan. 20. His family has said that a warning from the Chinese embassy in the Czech Republic against visiting Taiwan contributed to his heart attack.
Czech Senate Committee on Education Chairman Jiri Drahos, who ran for president in 2018, also announced that he would visit Taiwan with a group of scientists at the end of October, the CTK reported.
Following Vystrcil’s announcement, Legislative Speaker You Si-kun (游錫堃) wrote on Facebook that he on Wednesday last week sent an official letter to invite Vystrcil to Taiwan and shared a photograph of himself signing the invitation.
You expressed his admiration for Vystrcil’s courage to uphold democratic values, and demonstrate the Czech Republic’s independence and autonomy.
Vystrcil’s visit would be the first by an incumbent Czech senate president, You wrote, adding that it would deepen the global democratic alliance and set a new milestone for Taiwan’s parliamentary diplomacy.
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a news release reiterated its welcome to Vystrcil, saying that it would work with the Legislative Yuan to provide the Czech delegation with necessary assistance.
Taiwan-Czech relations have shown significant progress over the past few years, highlighted by close interactions between the two countries’ private sectors and a record number of Taiwanese visiting the Czech Republic, it added.
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