Prague, Nov 27 (CTK) – Czech President Milos Zeman may visit in 2017 several countries in South and Central America, South Korea and Vietnam and he also plans to attend the opening of EXPO 2017 in Astana, Kazakhstan, Hynek Kmonicek has told CTK.
Kmonicek, director of the Presidential Office’s foreign department, said the programme will depend on Zeman’s decision on whether he will seek re-election in 2018, which he will make in March.
Kmonicek said the schedule will also be influenced by whether Zeman will decide to wage an election campaign.
The foreign department would like to organise a South American tour at the request of businesspeople which has long been adjourned.
The latest possible date was last summer, when Zeman attended the opening of the Summer Olympics in Brazil. Zeman’s journey to Mexico, Colombia and Costa Rica was considered then, Kmonicek said.
He said a visit to South Korea, combined with Vietnam “in the ideal case,” is being theoretically considered.
Kmonicek said Croatian President Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic will vist the Czech Republic next spring.
Zeman would like to attend the opening of EXPO in Astana, which he promised to the Kazakh president during his recent visit.
Regardless of his decision on his presidential candidacy, Zeman will have to attend an Eaatern Partnership summit in the first half of 2017.
In the spring or summer, he will go to a NATO “mini-summit” in Brussels, which is also to be attended by U.S. president Donald Trump.
In September, Zeman will go to the session of the U.N. General Assembly and he will visit a Visegrad Four summit in Slovakia in October.
In contrast, Zeman’s trip to an EU-Africa summit in Ivory Coast is not planned.
“It will be held in November, or two months before the presidential election and one month after the big (general) election in the Czech Republic” and it is yet to be seen who will go there because it is not clear now whether “we will have a governemnt at the moment,” Kmonicek said.
Prague Castle would like to welcome the Ukrainian president in the Czech Republic. “But this will depend on developments, which we do not control,” Kmonicek said.
He said he does not know whether Zeman will visit Russia at the end of his first term.
He said this will depend among others on how U.S.-Russian cooperation will develop under the new U.S. president, Donald Trump.
In mid-December this year, Zeman will fly to Portugal.
