Hungarian President Katalin Nováková visiting the Czech Republic, March 3, 2023, Prague. President-elect Petr Pavel says goodbye to Hungarian President Katalin Nováková after meeting in the Hrzánské Palace in Prague.
Prague – Hungarian President Katalin Nováková was received by President-elect Petr Pavel at the Hrzánské Palace this afternoon. The meeting lasted about half an hour. Pavel said on Twitter about the meeting that it is important between allies to speak openly and tell each other things frankly, which he confirmed today with Nováková. In the past, Pavel was critical of, for example, Hungary's attitude towards Russia and the war in Ukraine.
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“Especially between allies, it's important to speak openly and say things straight to each other, even if we may have different opinions,” said Pavel. “We confirmed this today with Hungarian President Katalin Nováková during her stop during her official visit to the Czech Republic,” he added. He supplemented the statement with a joint photo of them discussing on the terrace of the Hrzánský palác.
Nováková had previously stated after meeting with outgoing President Miloš Zeman that she was looking forward to meeting his successor. After arriving in front of the Hrzánská Palace, she did not speak to journalists, but was greeted in front of the building by the head of the Pavlova protocol.
She advised that one of the topics of the conversation could be the cooperation of the Visegrád Four (V4), which, in addition to the Czech Republic and Hungary, includes Slovakia and Poland. The Hungarian president said at a press conference in the morning that she believes in cooperation within the V4 and considers it a suitable platform for discussing topics on which member states do not agree.
“I believe that the ties that bind us are much stronger than the points on which we disagree at the moment,” Nováková said about the cooperation of the four, recalling that last week she met Polish President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw and discussed Slovakian President Zuzana Čaputová.
Zeman said in connection with her meeting with Pavel that he hoped that Nováková would convince Pavel of the benefits of the cooperation of the Visegrad Four.
Pavel is critical of the situation in Hungary and V4. For example, last week in the debate of the Representation of the European Commission in the Czech Republic, he said that Hungary has been trying to go its own way for a long time. According to him, the country also has objective reasons for the way it behaves towards Russia, because, for example, it has a nuclear power plant under construction, financed largely with Russian money and technologically supplied by Russia. “On the other hand, it is clear that this is a fundamental problem, for example, for the V4. If we cannot agree on basic issues, and today the relationship with Russia and aid to Ukraine really forms the basis of other things, then the question is whether we should remain in such a grouping or if it has any hope of viable change at all,” he said. According to him, it would be premature to completely condemn the Visegrad Four. “But it will be appropriate that in the coming period, when we have the presidency (V4), we raise these important questions,” he added.
Zeman received Nováková at Prague Castle in the morning with military honors. During the meeting and subsequent lunch, they talked about the war in Ukraine, bilateral relations or the future of the regional partnership. The president presented Zeman with the highest Hungarian award.
