The President of the Republic Petr Pavel and Eva Pavlova welcomed the President of the Republic of the Philippines Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. at the Prague Castle. with his wife Louisa Araneta-Marco. After the ceremonial welcome, the meeting of the couples, the meeting of the delegations, and the press conference of the presidential couple, a festive dinner awaits. This is the first state visit of a Philippines President to the Czech Republic after 27 years. The last visit was in 1997.
The main goal of the meeting between the two presidents is to strengthen Czech activity towards the Indo-Pacific region. The 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations, which the countries commemorated last year, marked a restart of high-level meetings, with the last presidential visits taking place in the 1990s.
“I am very happy that the Philippine president visited the Czech Republic in addition to Germany, it is proof of interest in mutual cooperation, but also an expression of our mutual relations,” said President Petr Pavel at a joint press conference.
The main topic of the meeting will also be the support of business and bilateral business. Perspective areas of cooperation are railway and air transport, agriculture and food industry, space technology, security and defense industry, waste management, energy, water management, and tourism. The Philippines is the most important partner for the Czech Republic in terms of foreign employees.
On the sidelines of the talks with President Marcos, a Joint Communiqué on the establishment of a consultative mechanism in the field of labor will be signed. As part of the program, the Presidents will open a Business Forum at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday.
During the two-day visit, the Philippine president will also meet with Senate President Miloš Vystrčil, Speaker of the Chamber of Deputies Markéta Pekarová Adamová and Prime Minister Petr Fiala.
