Press Advisories

25. 4. 201918:15

The V4 countries supported the removal of trade barriers between Japan and the EU at a meeting with Prime Minister Abe of Japan

On Thursday, 25 April 2019, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš attended the third meeting of representatives of the governments of the Visegrad Group and Japan in Bratislava. They talked mainly about cooperation in mutual trade, science, research and innovation. Andrej Babiš and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe then discussed the further development of economic cooperation between the Czech Republic and Japan. The Czech Prime Minister invited Shinzo Abe to visit Prague on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations.

At the meeting with Prime Minister Abe, the representatives of the Visegrad Group appreciated the Japanese government’s forthcoming attitude to the removal of trade barriers between Japan and the European Union. The Prime Minister of the Japanese Government was also introduced to the V4 position within the EU as a single block of four countries, which share common views on a number of issues that the European Community is worried about – such as illegal migration, cohesion issues, the slow enlargement of the Union and the Schengen area, the deficient EU internal market or the issue of dual quality of food.

Another important topic was the international economic system, specifically the promotion of free trade and the digital economy within the OECD and the G20 and global threats. The Prime Ministers of the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Japan and the Deputy Prime Minister of Hungary also spoke about the UK’s exit from the European Union and cooperation with the United States and China.

According to Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, the talks were positive. “Japan is the second largest foreign investor in the Czech Republic. We have joint research projects with the Japanese Science and Technology Agency. We also talked about cooperation between the European Union and Japan. As V4, we also want to play a more important role in negotiating trade agreements with the United States, China and other countries outside the European Union, because we have something to say”, he said.

It was already the third summit of the Visegrad Group and Japan. The first was held in Warsaw in 2013 during the Polish Presidency, the last time the statesmen met in October 2018 in Brussels.

A direct connection would help

After the V4 meeting, Prime Minister Babiš met with the Japanese Prime Minister Abe for bilateral talks. They talked mainly about the economic cooperation of both countries. “According to CzechInvest, Japan is the second largest investor in the Czech Republic. Therefore, we greatly appreciate this cooperation. On the other hand, I urged the Prime Minister to improve the negative trade balance of about USD 2.3 billion. Therefore, we are looking for new markets for Czech exporters. Japan is a very important market for us and there is great potential”, said Prime Minister Babiš.

They also talked about cooperation between the Visegrad Group countries and Japan during the Czech V4 Presidency from July 2019. Science and technology was also an important item on the agenda. Both politicians also mentioned the 2020 Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo and the Czech Olympic Committee project to open the Czech House on this occasion. The Prime Minister also asked the Japanese Prime Minister to help find a suitable location for the statue of Věra Čáslavská, who won three gold medals at the Tokyo Olympics in 1964 and is still very popular in Japan.

Andrej Babiš invited Shinzo Abe to visit the Czech Republic on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of establishing mutual diplomatic relations on 12 January 1920. “I also asked the Prime Minister for support of a direct airline connection. There are some plans for 2020, and I asked him to try to speed it up and take this line when he comes to visit in 2020, which would be great for us”, the Prime Minister added.

The two Prime Ministers met for the second time. The first meeting took place in October 2018 in Brussels as part of the Asia-Europe meeting.