Press Advisories

14. 10. 201918:15

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš received Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen

On Monday, 14 October 2019, Prime Minister Andrej Babiš received the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, in Kramář’s Villa. The meeting between the Prime Minister and the delegation took the form of a working lunch.

The Prime Minister of the Czech Republic welcomed the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia, Hun Sen, in Kramář’s Villa. The subject of the meeting was mutual relations between the two countries, including development cooperation and humanitarian aid. As part of the economic cooperation, the meeting concentrated on bilateral trade, commercial projects related to the area of the coverage of development cooperation and on defensive cooperation, while the prime ministers also touched on issues of maintaining human rights and international relations.

“We spoke about the construction of hospitals and water purification plants in Cambodia by Czech companies. We also opened the possibility of cooperation in the defence industry. Cambodia has, for example, Czech L39 aircraft, which I see as a good touchpoint for further cooperation in this area. Cambodia also is very interested in continuing in the long-established tradition of educational cooperation. Hundreds of Cambodian students studied in the former Czechoslovakia and then in the Czech Republic, including the Cambodian King Norodom Sihamoni. I hold this human bond in very high regard,” stated the Czech Prime Minister following the meeting with the Cambodian delegation.

The Czech Republic and the Kingdom of Cambodia are also connected by long-term active foreign development cooperation. Cambodia is among the six prioritised countries for Czech foreign development cooperation, which focuses on the areas of health care and education or on the sustainable treatment of natural resources.

“I told Prime Minister Hun Sen that I appreciate that the Czech Development Agency received the Cambodian Royal Order in 2017 for its activities. A great advantage for development cooperation, and for Czech/Cambodian relations in general, was the successful settlement of Cambodia’s debt to the Czech Republic in 2017, with part of it being allocated for development projects,” Andrej Babiš evaluated with regard to the meeting and the themes that he discussed with the Prime Minister of the Kingdom of Cambodia.

The visit by Prime Minister Hun Sen was the first on the order of the prime ministers that has taken place between the Czech Republic and the Kingdom of Cambodia since the creation of the independent Czech Republic.