Czech President Milos Zeman and Foreign Minister Lubomir Zaoralek (Social Democrats, CSSD) will visit Sri Lanka on two separate occasions next year, daily Mlada fronta Dnes (MfD), the Prague Monitor news agency reports.

“The main reason for the visit to Sri Lanka is promotion of business-economic cooperation and the marking of the 60th anniversary of establishment of diplomatic relations,” Irena Valentova, spokeswoman for the Foreign Ministry, is quoted as saying.

Zeman’s spokesman Jiri Ovcacek mentioned “support for access to the local and Indian market,” MfD writes.

The schedule of foreign trips next year shows that after the foreign minister, who is travelling around the world mainly because of his post, Zeman plans the biggest number of foreign trips, MfD writes.

“There will be the election to the Chamber of Deputies [next autumn], and that is why politicians will be flying less than in the previous years, and if, they will be mainly shorter bligatory trips, such as to Brussels,” a knowledgeable source told MfD.

In addition to Sri Lanka, Zeman is also going to visit Colombia and Vietnam, with the aim to promote economic cooperation, MfD writes.

It writes that Senate chairman Milan Stech (CSSD) is to visit Chile, Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka (CSSD) India and Regional Development Minister Karla Slechtova (ANO) Vietnam.

-Prague Monitor
-Agencies