On the 29th of February 2016, another discussion with HE Mr Jean-Pierre Asvazadourian, Ambassador of France to the Czech Republic, about France, diplomacy and the current situation in the EU, took place. It was third meeting with the French Ambassador at the Embassy of France, which is one of the most beautiful and oldest embassy buildings in Prague. Today, we talked about France’s position in the
European Union and how France cooperates with others actors in the world. We focused on why Germany and France are the motors of the EU and whether the current German Chancellor, Angela Merkel, has got a ‘plan B’ to solve the refugee crisis on the European continent. After a lengthy introduction by His Excellency, we continued to discuss China, and to what extent it affects the Czech Republic and France respectively. His answer? The same: China has became important not only for the European Door (the Czech republic) but also for France. Secondly, NATO has to enforce cooperation with the EU to avoid further influxes of refugees or to make the crisis deeper than it already is; its overseeing control of the Mediterranean Sea and creation of a better worked-out foreign policy plan is under way.
Furthermore, we learned from the French Ambassador that, thanks to the broadcasting of French fairytales in TV Déčko (a Czech subscription television channel), Czech children are being enabled to encounter French language and culture. Also the French Republic has obtained support for small-to-medium companies that are working in foreign countries. The question is, can we discover the same opportunity in the Czech Republic, or does the Czech Republic have another approach to obtaining support for their companies in foreign countries?
Last but not least was an informal “talk” with His Excellency, in which he showed us some secrets of the French Embassy in Prague, including a secret door behind a mirror in the breathtaking interiors of the building, which sometimes gave me the feeling of being a diplomat in the eighteenth-century. The whole discussion was conducted in a friendly spirit and I hope that I will have an opportunity to talk with Ambassador Asvazadourian again. Today’s event brought home to us how important it is to participate in similar events and keep in touch with current situations in the World (rather than just reading articles from various websites).
