Prague, June 8 (CTK) – Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek will visit Germany on June 15 to meet his counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier and give him an official invitation to the Czech Republic for German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
Prague has long been striving for Merkel’s visit. She should pay it in the autumn, according to CTK sources.
Zaoralek (senior government Social Democrats, CSSD) told reporters yesterday that he would also like to give a speech at the Humboldt University in Berlin.
Zaoralek says he considers Germany a strategic partner with whom the Czech Republic should get on well.
Merkel was originally to visit Prague in the spring and attend a ceremonial meeting on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the foundation of the Visegrad Group (V4), comprised of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.
However, the date of her visit was postponed because of the migrant crisis on which the V4 countries and Germany took opposite stances.
Merkel could visit Prague on the occasion of the confirmation of the agreement on the Czech-German Fund for the Future. It was established in 1997 for the following ten years. However, both the Czech and German governments kept supporting it even after 2007.
In May, the Czech government agreed to earmark 270 million crowns for the fund for 2018-2027. Zaoralek said then a suitable opportunity to confirm the continuation of the fund’s work could come in the latter half of this year.
During his visit to Germany, Zaoralek will discuss the current hot issues in Europe, such as the migrant crisis, the Brexit referendum and the upcoming NATO summit in Warsaw.
Zaoralek and Steinmeier will also talk about a peaceful solution to the conflicts in Syria and Ukraine.
($1=23.815 crowns)
