Prime Minister meets with Boris Johnson and Volodymyr Zelensky in New York, discussing mutual relations and the V4 with the statesmen

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš continued with his visit to the USA on Tuesday 24 September. Together with the ministers, he participated in the General Assembly of the UN, discussed mutual relations with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and met with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson for the first time.

The Prime Minister began the second day of his visit to the USA together with the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Industry and Trade Karel Havlíček, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomáš Petříček and the Minister of the Environment Richard Brabec at the 74^th session of the General Assembly of the UN. Here the Czech delegation heard, for example, the speech by American President Donald Trump.

“We agree that every politician should be proud of his nation, protect its interests and borders. I was surprised that the word Europe did not come up. That is not good; Europe has to start negotiating intensively. It is something for us to think about. We need a trade agreement like the one Donald Trump is promising Great Britain,” commented the Czech Prime Minister.

Andrej Babiš first met with British Prime Minister Boris Johnson in New York. The theme of the meeting was primarily the strategic partnership of both countries. “I emphasised that the Brits are our strategic partners, I introduced our economic results and described the strength of the V4, which is interested in resolving Brexit by agreement. I am glad that Boris Johnson promised that he would visit us in Prague,” explained the Prime Minister after meeting with the British Prime Minister.

During bilateral meetings, the Prime Minister also met with the Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. The statesmen primarily discussed the mutual relations between the Czech Republic and Ukraine and growing trade. The influence of the V4 within Europe was also a theme of the meeting. The Prime Minister received an invitation to visit Ukraine from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. “It was a very friendly meeting. We spoke about V4’s activities in Europe and we invited the President to Prague, where he could also meet with the leaders of the Visegrad group,” added Andrej Babiš.

In New York, the Prime Minister also met with the Prime Minister of Armenia Nikol Pashinyan and lunched with the heads of the national delegations. The Prime Minister ended the second day of his visit to the USA together with his wife Monika at a reception held by the President of the USA.

Deputy Prime Minister Karel Havlíček also visited Cornell Tech University, whose new campus is close to Manhattan, on the Roosevelt Islands. Minister of Foreign Affairs Tomáš Petříček participated in the High-Level EU Event on Syria. For more information see the Press Release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

On Wednesday 25 September, the Czech Prime Minister will appear at the UN General Assembly and at the UN High-Level Political Forum for Sustainable Development (the SDG Summit), a meeting with representatives of American investors ACEBA, participation in the Bloomberg Global Business Forum, a meeting with Turkish President Erdoğan and with UN Secretary-General Gutteres.