Prague, March 29 (CTK) – Prague Mayor Adriana Krnacova gave a symbolical key of the city gates to Chinese President Xi Jinping during a ceremony in the Liechtenstein Palace that was watched by a number of Chinese journalists yesterday.
Xi signed the Prague City memorial book.
Krnacova said Prague appreciated its special long-term ties with the partner cities in China.
Prague’s partner cities in China were Shanghai and Guangzhou (Canton). The Czech capital recently signed a partnership agreement with Beijing.
Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, has been a partner city of Prague as well.
Xi and Krnacova recalled that a direct airline has been operating between Prague and Beijing since September 2015.
They also talked about the Prague celebrations of the Chinese New Year that welcomed the Year of the Fire Monkey in early February.
“I firmly believe that this year will bring our joint agreement and both of our cities good luck and benefit,” Krnacova said.
Xi said this has been his second visit to Prague. He said he feels at home in the beautiful city. He said he appreciated that it was also thanks to Krnacova that the friendship between Prague and Beijing was launched.
Xi said more and more Chinese, including those from Beijing, would travel to the Czech Republic and more and more Praguers and Czechs in general would visit China after yesterday’s ceremony.
The Prague-Beijing partnership agreement was criticised by some politicians for including the recognition of one China and explicitly of Taiwan as its part.
