Prague, Feb. 6, 2025 (Lusa) - Portugal's head of state, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, on Thursday ends his official visit to the Czech Republic, which he began on Tuesday at the invitation of president Petr Pavel, focussing on the capital.
Today Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa's programme begins with a meeting at Prague's Carolina University, where he will meet Portuguese-speaking students and professors and give a lecture on ‘Europe and the changing world’.
After lunch, the head of state will visit the Strahov Monastery and its famous library, the last point on his programme in the Czech Republic.
On Wednesday Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa was received at Prague Castle by Czech president Petr Pavel, who he invited to visit Portugal.
Relations between Europe and the United States, in terms of foreign trade and defence and security, were the central theme of the two heads of state's statements to the media.
Both argued that the transatlantic alliance must be maintained, with permanent dialogue, and safeguarded the importance of respect for international law and respect for territorial integrity, while playing down certain statements by US president Donald Trump.
Petr Pavel, a retired general who chaired NATO's Military Committee between 2015 and 2018, has been country's president since March 2023. Between 2012 and 2015 he was Chief of Staff of the Czech Armed Forces.
Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa also visited the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies and met with the prime minister, Petr Fiala, who heads a centre-right coalition government.
In between, he made a short joint visit with Petr Pavel to the Museum of Technology in Prague, to see the Renault 21 car taken from Portugal in December 1989 to be used for Václav Havel's inauguration as president of what was then Czechoslovakia.
This initiative was promoted by the then Portuguese president Mário Soares - who was travelling to Prague for Václav Havel's inauguration that same month - and by a group of young Portuguese association leaders who, during the Velvet Revolution, went to Prague to distribute thousands of roses.
On Tuesday evening, when he arrived in Prague, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa met with a few dozen representatives of the Portuguese community in the Czech Republic - where, according to consular data from December 2024, around a thousand Portuguese citizens live.
The last Portuguese head of state to visit this member state of the European Union and NATO was Cavaco Silva, in 2010, on a state visit. Previously, Mário Soares, in 1994, and Jorge Sampaio, in 2001, also made state visits to the Czech Republic.
The previous Czech president, Milos Zeman, paid a state visit to Portugal in December 2016, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa's first year in office.
The Czech Republic joined NATO in 1999 and the European Union in 2004.
The shorter name Czechia was adopted in 2016, but Czech Republic remains the country's official name.
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