Prague City Council approves terminating sister city pact with Beijing

Prague will withdraw from its sister pact with Beijing as China is unwilling to debate Prague’s demand that a statement on Prague’s recognition of One China be deleted from it, the City Council decided today.

The partnership agreement was approved by Prague under the previous mayor Adriana Krnacova (ANO) in February 2016, with the then opposition criticising its wording.

The city’s withdrawal from it still needs to be approved by the City Assembly.

China repeatedly criticised Prague’s intended step through diplomatic channels.

Prague’s current leadership, with Mayor Zdenek Hrib (Pirates) at the head, called on Beijing to discuss the deletion of the above formulation in January. The negotiations continued in writing, with the Chinese side reacting negatively to Prague’s repeated proposals to delete the pact’s Article 3, and not reacting to its latest urgency at all.

As a result, Prague decided to withdraw from the pact.

China’s representatives previously said Prague’s approach harms Czech-Chinese relations.