New Czech leader vows to boost ties with Taiwan

Czech President-elect Petr Pavel vowed on Monday to boost his country’s ties with Taiwan after holding a phone call with the island’s leader and foreign minister.

Taiwanese leader Tsai Ing-wen congratulated Pavel on his win in Saturday’s presidential runoff over populist billionaire Andrej Babis.

“I thanked her for her congratulations and I assured her that Taiwan and the Czech Republic share the values of freedom, democracy and human rights,” Pavel said on Twitter.

“We agreed on strengthening our partnership,” added the former general, who served as head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization’s military committee from 2015 to 2018.

He said he “expressed hope to have the opportunity to meet President Tsai in person in the future.”

The call is likely to anger China, which is trying to keep Taipei isolated on the world stage and prevents any sign of international legitimacy for the island.

Beijing claims self-ruled, democratic Taiwan as part of its territory to be seized one day, by force if necessary.

Tsai’s office said the call, which

Taiwan’s Foreign Minister Joseph Wu also joined, lasted almost 15 minutes.

Tsai “acknowledged that presidentelect Pavel carries on the spirit of former Czech president (Vaclav) Havel who respected democracy, freedom and human rights, under which the republic was founded, and is likeminded with Taiwan,” her office said in a statement.

Havel was the Czech Republic’s first president from 1993 to 2003.

Before Havel became head of state, the anticommunist dissident playwright had in 1989 led the so-called Velvet Revolution, which toppled communism in former Czechoslovakia.

As the Czech Republic’s fourth president, Pavel will replace proChinese and pro-Russian incumbent Milos Zeman, whose final term expires in March.

Zeman is currently visiting Aleksandar Vucic, the president of Serbia, which has not joined Western sanctions against Moscow following its invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

In a sign that his foreign policy would vastly differ from Zeman’s, Pavel spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on the phone on Sunday.