Press Advisories
9. 3. 2019 17:20
Prime Minister in the US: It was the most important event in my political life
“I enjoyed it. It was the most important event in my political life“, Andrej Babiš summarized the impressions of his visit to the USA, accompanied by his wife Monika, before leaving home. During the three days, the Prime Minister attended 25 meetings and protocol events and his wife attended another 5 meetings outside the joint program.
On Friday morning, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš met in the Capitol with Kevin McCarthy, the Republican Minority Leader in the House of Representatives. They talked about cyber and energy security, about our commitments within NATO, or buying military equipment. He then headed for a business lunch with representatives of the Friends of the Czech Representatives in Congress, members of the House of Representatives.
He talked about the Czech Republic’s interests in the US with Jan Schakowski, the Democratic congresswoman for Illinois, Debbie Dingel, the Democratic Congresswoman for Michigan, and Ronald Wright, the Republican congressman for Texas. “At this point we have about 12 representatives in the House of Representatives. They are people who have a relationship with our country, who know us, who know the interests of the Czech Republic in the United States of America. We invited them to Prague because some of them had never even been to Prague. We agreed that they could come to visit us after the European elections”, added Andrej Babiš.
In the afternoon, the Prime Minister met with the representatives of important American Jewish organizations. After a meeting with the AIPAC leadership, the Prime Minister met with the representatives of the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the National Coalition Supporting Soviet Jewry (NCSEJ), the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and the international Jewish political organization B'nai B'rith. “We talked about my visit to Israel and their opinion about the Czech Republic’s attitudes and actions within the UN Human Rights Council”, Czech Prime Minister said after the meeting.
As part of the 2019–2030 National Innovation Strategy, Prime Minister Babiš visited the 1776 Crystal City business incubator. The Prime Minister discussed innovative approaches through which 1776 supports start-ups. He learned about the principles and functioning of the community of entrepreneurs, start-ups and innovators. “The US has the largest network of incubators, about 2,500. There are about 100 companies in this incubator. They provide all that starting entrepreneurs may need. It is interesting because even though there are 100 of them, they have contacts with each other, they are actually together in one place. They also have a canteen, shared facilities, small infrastructure”, explained the Prime Minister.
After that, Andrej Babiš visited the branch of CloverDX, a successful Czech IT company in Washington. The Prime Minister was given a tour of the company’s premises and became familiar with the operation of the automated data integration that CloverDX provides. “American managers praised our people’s skills, their technical expertise. They said we were one of the best in the world. It is a company that expands abroad, they are in London, here in Washington and have big plans, it is a great company”, said Andrej Babiš.
Andrej Babiš and the US Secretary of Defense, Patrick Shanahan honoured the memory of the victims of the 9/11 terrorist attack at a memorial outside the Pentagon Building. “We must remember the threat of international terrorism”, said Andrej Babiš.
The Prime Minister ended the official visit to the USA by visiting an Apple Store, which the Prime Minister would like to see in Prague. He talked about the plan to open an Apple store with Apple’s CEO Tim Cook during his visit to the World Economic Forum in Davos in January.
