HONG KONG, May 27 (Reuters) – China is willing to work with the Czech Republic to improve ties and revive a traditional friendship, Foreign Minister Wang Yi told Czech counterpart Petr Macinka, state broadcaster CCTV said on Wednesday.
Like most nations, the Czech Republic formally recognises only Beijing but in recent years it has grown closer to Taiwan, the democratically governed island claimed by China, and has seen growing investment from it.
Under a new government in power since December, however, Prague has sought to revive ties with Beijing, and Macinka said after meeting Wang that he would like the two countries to have pragmatic relations.
Both sides should “strengthen dialogue and cooperation, enhance political mutual trust and gradually expand practical cooperation in areas such as economy, trade and tourism,” Wang said, according to CCTV.
Taiwan is an internal issue for China, Wang added, saying he hoped the Czech government would “practise the One-China principle … and promote China-Czech relations back on a healthy development track.”
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China has been critical of ties between Prague and Taipei. It sees the island as having no right to state-to-state relations, a view the government in Taipei strongly rejects.
Taiwan Foreign Minister Lin Chia-lung visited Prague last week and spoke at a forum in the city.
Czech Senate President Milos Vystrcil is leading a business delegation on a visit next week to Taiwan, where he is set to meet President Lai Ching-te.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babis, whose ANO party leads a coalition with right-wing and far-right parties, has criticised the trip and the government did not provide Vystrcil with a state plane for the journey.
Macinka said the government had no official contacts with Taiwanese representatives, in line with previous policy.
“The interest of the Czech government is to have normal relations with China,” he told journalists in New York during a visit to the United Nations, in comments broadcast by Czech Television.
Macinka also said he assured Wang that a Chinese national detained in the Czech Republic earlier this year on suspicion of working with Chinese intelligence was being held in normal conditions while awaiting trial.
Relations between the nations were also strained last year after Czech President Petr Pavel met the Dalai Lama in India in July. A group from the Czech parliament also travelled to Dharamshala in December and met the Tibetan spiritual leader.
In March, China said it strongly opposed the Czech Senate passing a draft resolution on the Dalai Lama’s succession, saying it “grossly interfered” with its internal affairs.
(Reporting by the Beijing newsroom, Additional reporting by Ben Blanchard in Taipei, Jan Lopatka and Jason Hovet in Prague; Writing by Farah Master; Editing by Clarence Fernandez and Kate Mayberry)
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