PRAGUE, Czech Republic — Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said the Czech Republic is interested in stronger economic and trade relations with the Philippines and expressed readiness to support the country in various sectors such as agriculture and transportation.

Fiala said this during his bilateral meeting with President Marcos here on Thursday afternoon, March 14 (Prague time).

In his remarks, Fiala expressed to Marcos their readiness to support the Philippines in various sectors such as agriculture, energy technology, transportation, civil aviation and aeronautics, and space technology.

He likewise reiterated to the President their strong commitment to the Philippines’ economic development, saying Prague considers Manila as a key partner in the Indo-Pacific region.

“We are interested in stronger economic and trade relations with your country. We can assist this diversification of your country’s economic model,” Fiala said.

“I saw in Manila many possibilities for our future cooperation. We discussed cooperation, agriculture, defense, aviation, and energy,” he added.

Prime Minister Fiala visited Manila in April 2023 and met with President Marcos where they launched the book “Kaibigan-Přátelé: Czech-Philippine Cultural and Diplomatic Dialogue" in Malacañan Palace.

In response, President Marcos noted that their trips to their respective countries showed their vibrant bilateral ties and have borne fruit as they agreed to further explore more areas of cooperation that are beneficial to their people.

He also acknowledged Fiala’s strong commitment to the Philippines and the Filipino people.

“We continue to pursue and explore the areas that we spoke about before. We, of course, talked about the defense and security, and, in that vein, we have just— the Armed Forces of the Philippines, as you know, is in the process of modernization of our capabilities and capacities,” Marcos said.

“We continue to explore also in terms of agriculture, cybersecurity, which is something that we spoke about very briefly, but now we put a little bit more, put a bit more meat on the bones of that initial discussion that we have had,” he added.

The Diplomatic relations between the Philippines and the Czech Republic were officially established on Oct. 5, 1973.