Juan David Latorre
The Czech Republic and Spain are preparing for a visit to Madrid early next year by the Prime Minister of the Central European country, Petr Fiala, as announced yesterday by the Minister of Industry, Energy and Trade, Jozef Síkela, during a reception to commemorate the Czech Republic’s National Day.
After being introduced by Ambassador Libor Secka, who underlined his country’s interest in improving the already “excellent” relations with Spain, Síkela also officially announced that “we would like to welcome the Spanish Foreign Minister to the Czech Republic in the coming months”.
The Czech minister was pleased that “our economic exchange is gradually growing” and expressed his desire to “stimulate long-term investments, which would structurally bring us even closer together”. The Czech Republic is currently the ninth largest importer and exporter to Spain, “but I think we could go even higher,” he said.
Moreover, he continued, “there are many areas with great potential” for Spanish-Czech economic relations. Among them, he cited space technology and energy, as well as a common challenge: “to modernise and adapt the automobile industry to the new current reality”.
Recalling that “historical ties with Spain go back many centuries and official diplomatic relations began more than 100 years ago”, he said that “what matters now is the present and the future”, especially in the face of the most recent challenges, such as the pandemic and Russian aggression against Ukraine, “which have been a total disaster for Europe and for the world” and to which “we will have to devote time, money and energy” to overcome.
“Support for Ukraine, a peaceful country against which Russia is waging an unnecessary and illegal war, remains essential,” he said. Therefore, he added, “in addition to political support, we must focus on strengthening economic ties with Ukraine and its businesses and join forces – also with Spain – in its material support, as well as in the reconstruction of the country”.
Jozef Síkela, who attended the Energy and Climate Summit in Madrid yesterday, considered that “European unity has been significantly strengthened” but stressed “the need for a strong energy policy at European level”.
Finally, he welcomed “the recovery of tourism”, whose figures “are improving in both directions”, which translates into more flights by Czech Airlines to Spain and plans by other companies to expand their offer “not only for tourists, but also for the growing Czech community in Spain and students travelling in both directions”.
The reception was attended by a number of foreign ambassadors accredited to Spain, as well as representatives of the Spanish government and representatives of Czech and Spanish companies.
