The newly elected Czech President, Petr Pavel, intends to set foreign policy priorities before he takes office in early March.
After his election, he announced that he would travel to Kyiv.
And on Monday, he received a call from Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen.
The conversation lasted 15 minutes, the government in Taipei announced in the evening.
This made Pavel the first elected European head of state who ever spoke to President Tsai on the phone and made it public.
Friederike Böge
Political correspondent for China, North Korea and Mongolia.
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Stephen Lowenstein
Political correspondent based in Vienna.
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Since the Czech Republic does not recognize Taiwan as a state, it is a break with diplomatic conventions.
Pavel is following in the footsteps of Donald Trump, who had Tsai call him in December 2016.
At that point, Trump, like Pavel, had been elected president but had not yet been inaugurated.
He was the first and is the only US president-elect to have spoken directly to a Taiwanese leader since diplomatic ties between Taipei and Washington broke off in 1979.
Incumbent Zeman travels to Serbia
Nothing could describe Pavel's break with the outgoing incumbent Miloš Zeman more sharply on foreign policy issues than the telephone call and Pavel's trip to Kyiv.
Zeman had maintained close ties with Russia and China during his ten-year tenure.
For a time, his foreign policy advisors included a Chinese businessman with contacts to the leadership in Beijing.
As for Russia, Zeman had dismissed speculation about an imminent attack on Ukraine as interest-driven lies until it actually happened.
On Monday, however, the outgoing president undertook one of his rare trips to Serbia.
Together with Serbian President Aleksandar Vučič, he condemned the Russian aggression and reaffirmed the commitment to Ukraine's territorial integrity.
That includes Donbass and Crimea, Vučič said explicitly and asked for understanding that Serbia is not joining the sanctions against Russia because of its situation.
Zeman found that Serbia was suitable as a possible mediator in the conflict "because of its neutral position".
Other political actors had previously emancipated themselves from Zeman when it came to China and Taiwan.
In 2021, Taiwan's Foreign Minister Joseph Wu was received in Prague, which is avoided in some other EU countries.
The following year, the confident Senate President Miloš Vystrčíl traveled to Taipei.
Prime Minister Petr Fiala, who has been in power since 2021, took the opposite course to President Zeman, particularly on Taiwan policy, while Fiala’s predecessor in office, Andrej Babiš, followed his supporter Zeman when it came to Russia and China.
Now that Pavel has defeated Babiš in the presidential election, it is becoming apparent that greater foreign policy harmony is returning between the presidential office and the government in Prague.
"Strengthening the partnership"
For Tsai, the phone call with Pavel is a notable achievement in her efforts to lead Taiwan out of the international isolation into which China has pushed the island nation.
These efforts have borne fruit, especially in Central and Eastern Europe.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, displeasure with Beijing's pro-Russian stance has been growing there.
Taiwan has used this to offer itself as a value partner, which is also threatened by an authoritarian state.
To underline this, Taiwan has supported Poland and the Czech Republic in caring for Ukrainian refugees.
During the pandemic, Taiwan sought rapprochement with Prague and Warsaw using mask diplomacy.
Here, too, it benefited from the local distrust of China.
On Monday, Tsai and Pavel announced
In its advances towards Prague, Taiwan ties in with the 1990s.
At that time, anti-communism and the experience of democratization brought both countries together.
President Václav Havel sent his wife to Taipei.
Taiwanese President Chen Shui-bian's wife returned the visit.
At that time, Havel still avoided direct contact with his counterpart.
Unlike now apparently Pavel.