Visiting Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil yesterday said that China cannot tell the Czech Republic whom to befriend and said he has officially invited Taiwan’s Legislative Speaker Han Kuo-yu (韓國瑜) to visit the Czech Republic.
Speaking alongside Han at a press event held at the Legislative Yuan, Vystrcil, who arrived in Taiwan yesterday morning, told reporters that Taiwan and the Czech Republic are “free and democratic countries and do not take orders from other countries.”
“We will decide who to befriend and who not to befriend,” he said through an interpreter.
Photo: Lo Pei-de, Taipei Times
Vystrcil was responding to a statement issued late on Sunday by China’s embassy in Prague, which accused him of “interfering in China’s internal affairs.”
The statement said China has “consistently and firmly opposed countries that have diplomatic relations with China having any form of official exchanges with Taiwan.”
“The Chinese side urges the Czech side to strictly abide by the ‘one China’ principle and immediately take effective measures to eliminate the adverse consequences of this wrongdoing,” the embassy said on its Web site.
In response, Vystrcil said in Taipei that the Czech Republic follows its own “one China” policy rather than China’s “one China” principle.
There is nothing wrong with exchanges between the Czech Senate and the Legislative Yuan, as parliamentary diplomacy is an important part of the Czech Republic’s foreign policy, he said.
Addressing criticism of the trip from within his own government, Vystrcil said that cooperation between the Czech Republic and Taiwan is mutually beneficial and serves the interests of both sides.
Before the trip, he asked fellow senators whether they supported strengthening ties with Taiwan, and more than 80 percent said they did, Vystrcil said.
Vystrcil said he had extended an official invitation to Han to visit the Czech Republic.
The last time a Taiwanese legislative speaker visited the Czech Republic was in July 2022, when then-legislative speaker You Si-kun (游錫?) made the trip.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who was elected late last year, said he would not provide a government aircraft for the trip because he did not want it to be seen as an official endorsement that could harm Czech business interests in China.
Han told reporters yesterday that the Czech Republic has long supported Taiwan on the international stage despite the absence of official diplomatic ties.
More direct flights between Taipei and Prague are to begin in August, demonstrating the increasingly close economic, cultural, educational and tourism exchanges between the two sides, Han said.
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