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C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 PRAGUE 000046 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/08/2015 
TAGS: PREL EINV EZ CH BM IN PK AF VM CB
SUBJECT: CZECHS IN ASIA:  CONTINUED FOCUS ON CHINA, BUT 
INCREASING ENGAGEMENT PLANNED IN INDIA, VIETNAM 
 
REF: A. 05 PRAGUE 1023 
 
     ¶B. 05 PRAGUE 1664 
 
Classified By: Pol/Econ Chief Michael Dodman for reasons 1.4 b+d. 
 
¶1. (C) Summary. The Czech Republic plans active engagement 
with East and South Asia in the first half of 2006, with most 
attention focused on China.  During a visit to Prague in 
December, the Chinese PM closed an investment agreement that, 
according to critics, noticeably favors Chinese interests 
over Czech (and may violate EU rules).  Several visits to 
China are being planned for the coming months, with the focus 
squarely on commercial issues; the Speaker of Parliament has 
floated the idea of a visit to Tibet as a means of drawing 
attention to human rights, but the proposal is likely to 
fail.  PM Paroubek will visit India this month, on the heels 
of a visit by President Klaus; among the business deals the 
GOCR hopes to discuss is possible Indian purchase of a VERA 
radar system, which would be a counterweight to the system 
Pakistan is planning to acquire.  Several leading Czech 
officials plan to visit Vietnam this year, and a visit to 
Prague by the Vietnamese PM is possible in the spring. 
President Karzai intends to visit Prague this year, as the 
Czechs contemplate increasing their engagement in 
Afghanistan.  The Czech MFA continues to work with the North 
Koreans to define their relationship, and the Czechs will be 
pursuing the question of conditions for North Korean workers 
in the CR.  Despite this flurry of activity, the Czech MFA 
admits it does not have a coherent Asia strategy, and hopes 
to coordinate this with the USG.  End summary. 
 
¶2.  (C) Pol/Econ Counselor (serving as Charge) and Poloff met 
Jan 5 with Jan Fury, Czech MFA Director of Asia/Pacific 
Department, to review the December visit to Prague of Chinese 
PM Wen Jiabao, as well as on-going Czech discussions with 
North Korea.  Fury provided an extensive overview of planned 
Czech engagement with countries in South and East Asia in 
2006, indicating that the planned June Czech elections will 
not slow the pace of official travel involving PM Paroubek 
and senior Czech officials. 
 
----- 
China 
----- 
 
¶3. (C) The Chinese PM visited Prague Dec 8-9, 2005.  The 
visit was designed to build on PM Paroubek's June 2005 trip 
to China, which launched a sharp escalation in Czech-Chinese 
engagement (reftels).  As expected, the Prague talks focused 
nearly exclusively on economic cooperation.  Aside from the 
announcement of some small business deals, the big news from 
the visit -- the first by a Chinese PM to Prague since the 
Velvet Revolution -- was signature of a controversial 
investment agreement which, according to critics (including 
the Foreign Minister), is both overly preferential to the 
Chinese side and contravenes EU rules.  According to Fury, 
Paroubek did not raise the human rights situation or IPR 
deficiencies in China, and neither side raised the EU arms 
embargo. 
 
¶4. (C) Fury outlined a number of visits planned in the coming 
months.  Speaker of Parliament Lubomir Zaoralek (CSSD) 
intends to visit China, as well as Hong Kong and Vietnam, in 
late January.  Zaoralek's agenda was not yet settled.  Press 
reports indicated Zaoralek was considering trying to include 
a stop in Tibet on his itinerary, as a way of highlighting 
the human rights situation, but Fury expected this would not 
win approval from Beijing, and Zaoralek subsequently stated 
this is unlikely.  (Comment:  Zaoralek, however, can be 
expected to keep human rights on his agenda in Beijing, 
although Paroubek is likely to urge him to treat the issue 
lightly.)  Deputy FM Basta has been invited to Beijing, and 
FM Svoboda is also contemplating a trip before the June Czech 
elections (possibly to include stops in Japan, Mongolia and 
Kazakhstan).  Fury complained that the pace of visits was out 
of proportion to the actual amount of 
government-to-government work to be accomplished. 
 
---------------- 
India & Pakistan 
---------------- 
 
PRAGUE 00000046  002 OF 003 
 
 
 
¶5. (C) The Czechs seek increased economic cooperation with 
India as well. PM Paroubek plans to travel to New Delhi and 
Calcutta the week of January 17, 2006. Paroubek will meet 
with Indian President and prominent Indian business leaders, 
and deliver a speech at a business conference.  His visit 
follows a December trip to India by Czech President Klaus. 
According to Fury, Paroubek will not pursue any significant 
political topics during his visit, but (as in China) will 
focus almost exclusively on business.  One topic likely to be 
raised is Indian interest in purchasing a version of the 
Czech-made VERA passive surveillance system.  Fury said the 
Indian interest in the purchase is a result of Pakistan's 
intention to also acquire the technology (note:  Czech 
officials had approached us in 2004 regarding a possible 
VERA-E sale to India; the USG did not indicate objections to 
the sale, but there appear to have been no active discussions 
on an actual deal since then). 
 
¶6. (SBU) Fury noted that Deputy FM Tomas Pojar will also 
travel to India and Pakistan in coming months.  Further on 
Pakistan, the Czechs plan to airlift 11 Pakistani children to 
Prague in January to provide medical treatment, mostly for 
traumatic injuries, that cannot be provided in Pakistan. 
 
------------------------- 
Cambodia, Burma & Vietnam 
------------------------- 
 
¶6. (C) Although the Czechs do not have a mission in Cambodia, 
the MFA plan to host a Chiefs of Mission Conference in 
Cambodia March 11-15 to celebrate the 50th anniversary of 
Czech-Cambodian diplomatic relations. Relations between the 
Czechs and the Cambodians are very cordial thanks to King 
Sihanouk, affectionately known in Prague as the &Czech 
Prince8 because he is a fluent Czech speaker.  Fury noted 
that he was interested in opening an embassy in Phnom Penh, 
but he doubted the MFA's budget would permit this.  He added 
that the MFA is also engaged in an internal debate on the 
wisdom of opening an embassy in Rangoon, with the issue there 
not so much money but the appropriate approach to take 
vis-a-vis the regime:  to increase engagement with an embassy 
(which could facilitate Czech pro-democracy work), or 
continue to isolate the regime. 
 
¶7. (C) Czech visitors to Vietnam this year are likely to 
include Speaker Zaoralek, Deputy FM Pojar, and Minister of 
Trade and Industry Milan Urban.  Fury said there is an 
invitation outstanding for Vietnamese PM Phan Van Khai to 
visit Prague before the June elections. 
 
----------- 
Afghanistan 
----------- 
 
¶8. (C) Turning to Afghanistan, Fury said President Hamid 
Karzai is expected to visit Prague this year.  Fury had no 
details on the visit, only that it was not likely to be tied 
to the upcoming London conference on Afghanistan (note:  the 
Afghan Ambassador in Prague is closely related to President 
Karzai, and this is a likely impetus for the possible visit). 
 Fury noted that discussion was on-going within the MFA about 
how and when to reopen their embassy in Kabul, which was 
important given the level of Czech engagement there.  While 
no decision has been taken on a permanent mission, the MFA 
recently sent a dedicated Afghan-watcher to its mission in 
Islamabad.  Fury noted that in addition to the GOCR decision 
to return Czech Special Forces to Iraq this year (approved 
Jan 11 by the cabinet, but still subject to parliamentary 
approval), the MFA and MOD are actively debating leading a 
PRT in Afghanistan (details septel). 
 
-------------------------------- 
North Korean Workers & Relations 
-------------------------------- 
 
¶9. (C) CDA informed Fury that the U.S. press has reported 
that North Korean women are laboring in the Czech Republic 
under poor working and living conditions.  The women 
allegedly pay more than half their wages to the North Korean 
government, and then starve themselves so they will have 
 
PRAGUE 00000046  003 OF 003 
 
 
money for their families. CDA noted that the Embassy will be 
investigating the story and meeting with other Czech 
ministries, and urged the MFA to likewise investigate.  Fury 
said he found the story disgusting and personally agreed that 
these sorts of labor contracts should not exist in the Czech 
Republic.  Fury also said he would discuss the issue with the 
North Korean Ambassador during an upcoming meeting.  At that 
meeting, Fury promised that the MFA would be raising the need 
for progress in the six-party talks, and investigating steps 
that the two governments could take to improve cooperation in 
previously agreed humanitarian areas -- for instance, 
movement on a Czech proposal to bring a North Korean 
children's choir to the CR.  He added that Pyongyang was 
interested in having him visit for further talks, but he saw 
no need for a visit absent signs of progress on previous 
proposals. 
 
------------- 
Asia Strategy 
------------- 
 
¶10. (C) Fury admitted that one surprise in his few months on 
the job has been the lack of an agreed GOCR Asia "strategy." 
He would like to coordinate with the USG on development of 
such a document.  We will follow-up with Fury on specific 
ideas (and provide publicly available USG documents) during a 
subsequent meeting. 
CABANISS