Berlin, July 3 (CTK) – The Czechs and Germans want to promote cooperation in nine spheres, including European and foreign policy, science, research and education, energy industry, transport and drug fighting, on which they signed a declaration on strategic cooperation Friday.
The document was signed by the Czech and German foreign ministers, Lubomir Zaoralek and Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
They said they will meet once a year to assess the new form of cooperation. They both said current Czech-German relations are excellent.
The declaration follows up the document on good neighbourhood between Czechoslovakia and Germany of 1992 and the Czech-German declaration signed five years later.
The Czech Republic is one the two successor states to Czechoslovakia that split as from end-1992. The other state is Slovakia.
The Czech Republic and Germany also want to intensively cooperate in culture, security and defence policy, agriculture and health care.
The debate on foreign policy also includes human rights. The Czechs would like to learn from the Germans how to bring into harmony the development of economic diplomacy and human rights protection.
The current Czech foreign policy came under criticism for abandoning the previous focus on human rights for the benefit of the economy.
The Czech Republic has already waged a strategic dialogue with the United States with which it discusses current affairs once a year.
The meetings with Germany are to be much more frequent, Petr Drulak, director of Zaoralek’s political staff, said.
The two ministers are also to meet regularly.
The Czech Republic also has a high-level partnership with France and the government holds joint meetings with its Irish, Polish and Slovak counterparts.
