Nuclear and war in Ukraine at the heart of Emmanuel Macron's visit to the Czech Republic
Emmanuel Macron is going to Prague, in the Czech Republic, this Tuesday March 5.
The French president must sign, with the Czech Prime Minister, Petr Fiala, an action plan relating to the bilateral strategic partnership between the two countries.
Discussions on international, energy and even transport issues are on the menu for this visit.
Czech President Petr Pavel and French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on December 20, 2023. AP - Christophe Ena
By: RFI Follow
Advertisement
Read more
With our special correspondent in Prague
,
Charlotte Urien-Tomaka
This is the third time that Emmanuel Macron has visited Prague.
For this whirlwind one-day trip, it will obviously be about Ukraine, but also about bilateral strengthening between France and the Czech Republic, particularly in civil nuclear power.
A multi-billion dollar contract is being discussed with, as a result, the construction of four reactors in the country.
The CEO of EDF, but also other representatives of the nuclear industry, are accompanying the Head of State on this trip.
Everyone will meet to talk about the subject during a Franco-Czech forum on the theme of nuclear energy.
Emmanuel Macron plans to meet the French community at the start of his trip.
Some 10,000 nationals live in the Czech Republic.
The objective is to demonstrate the friendship that exists between the two peoples.
The Czech Republic is a country that can be a good intermediary, a good mediator.
It is a country which finds itself in a relatively unprecedented political situation, with an alignment on the essentials – and in particular on the question of geopolitical orientation and positions with regard to the war in Ukraine – between the two branches of the executive that we don't necessarily see elsewhere
00:55
“The Czech Republic can be a good intermediary”
Daniel Vallot
A compromise on the delivery of ammunition to Ukraine?
The President of the Republic will then meet his Czech counterpart,
Petr Pavel
, then Petr Fiala, the President of the Government.
Discussions will focus on the Czech initiative to accelerate munitions deliveries to Ukraine, on which Paris has not yet revealed its decision.
The Czech plan on this subject arouses some reluctance on the French side, explains Lukas Macek, head of the Greater Europe Center at the Jacques-Delors Institute, speaking to
Daniel Vallot
:
“
France supported the idea that the munitions to be delivered to Ukraine should be of essentially European origin.
So there was this desire to finance aid to Ukraine which would enable European industry to benefit from these orders.
(...) The plan led by the Czech government and supported by around fifteen countries today, is to buy ammunition where
it is immediately available
, that is to say outside the European Union .
The reluctance is there.
But I also think that given the urgency, given the fact that objectively, the European Union has not been able to produce the quantities of munitions that it had promised to the Ukrainians, it is quite logical that there be willing to compromise on this issue and accept this Czech proposal as an immediate pragmatic solution.
»
This trip will end with a cultural sequence at the National Gallery in Prague, where Emmanuel Macron will visit the museum's French collection, before returning to Paris in the evening.
Newsletter
Receive all the international news directly in your inbox
I subscribe
Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application
Share :
Continue reading on the same themes:
France
Czech Republic
Emmanuel Macron
Peter Pavel
Nuclear
Ukraine