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President-Elect Pavel Risks China Blowback w/Call To Taiwan

CZECHIA

President-Elect Petr Pavel risks a significant diplomatic blowback from Beijing as he plans to hold a call with Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen later this morning at around 1100CET (0500ET, 1000GMT, 1800CST). Czechia holds no official diplomatic relations with Taiwan, and indeed outgoing President Milos Zeman has been seen as a staunch supporter of closer links with Beijing during his time in office.

  • Pavel's actions could put PM Petr Fiala in something of a difficult situation. Fiala's centre-right Spolu alliance backed Pavel in the Jan 27-28 election against populist former PM Andrej Babis. It is unclear whether Fiala supports the phone call, but as the head of the gov't (as opposed to Pavel's position as largely-ceremonial head of state) it is his administration that will deal with the diplomatic and policy blowback from China.

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