Czech PM ends visit to Vietnam, calls regime ‘harsh’

The Czech prime minister, Mirek Topolánek was in Vietnam on Sunday, where he met the general secretary of the country’s Communist party, Nong Duc Manh. This brought the Czech prime minister’s three-day visit to Ho Chi Minh City to an end. After his meeting with the head of the Communist party, Mr Topolánek said that it was visible that the regime in Vietnam was a ‘harsh’ one, and that at times he felt ill at ease in the country. Mr Topolánek was in Vietnam to discuss trade links with and future investment in the country, as well as the increasing number of Vietnamese nationals applying for residency permits in the Czech Republic. After Slovaks and Ukrainians, Vietnamese nationals constitute the third largest minority in the Czech Republic, there are more than 45,000 registered Vietnamese living on Czech soil.