Prague, March 29 (CTK) – China and the Czech Republic should promote pragmatic cooperation and reinforce their mutual interconnection, Chinese President Xi Jinping said after meeting his Czech counterpart Milos Zeman yesterday.
He said all-round exchanges between government bodies and political parties should be boosted and he also spoke about economic cooperation, cultural exchanges and inter-regional cooperation.
Xi Jinping said he and Zeman had discussed matters in which the two countries shared their interests and arrived at a broad consensus.
The Czech Republic and China will launch together large projects and they will cooperate in such spheres as nuclear energy, he added.
Xi Jinping said the exchange and cooperation in the sphere of finances and advanced technologies would continue.
Cultural cooperation is important, Xi Jinping said, adding that he considered it a traditional, strongly developed sphere of Czech-Chinese relations.
A reciprocal enrichment of Czech and Chinese culture should be encouraged, Xi Jinping said.
Czech Culture Minister Daniel Herman expressed on Twitter surprise at the words about cooperation in culture.
“The Chinese President encouraged cultural exchange and cooperation at a press conference yesterday. Interestingly, the Czech culture minister has not been addressed in this respect,” Herman wrote.
Herman said China did not like it that the Czech Chamber of Deputies observed one minute of silence for the victims of the anti-Chinese uprising in Tibet in 1959 on his initiative on March 10.
He said cultural and trade exchange should be supported, but not at all costs.
Herman said it is not possible to cheaply sell out the value of human rights for a momentary economic profit.
The cooperation should also be intensified in the spheres of education, television and tourism, Xi Jinping said.
Cooperation in Chinese traditional medicine should further develop, too, Xi Jinping said.
He said the talks with Zeman were friendly and fruitful also because they had met for the fifth time in the past years, having become “good friends.”
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