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The prime ministers of the Visegrád Group (V4) met on Tuesday in the Hungarian town of Gödöllő, about 30 kilometres east of Budapest, and announced plans to strengthen regional cooperation.

“V4 is back,” Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar said following the summit, his first as host of a Visegrád Group meeting.

Cooperation among the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia has been strained in recent years, largely due to differing positions on Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, launched in February 2022.

The four leaders — Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Hungary’s Péter Magyar — agreed to meet in the V4 format before every major European Union summit in order to coordinate and advance their shared interests.

Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš welcomed the revival of the grouping and the renewed consensus among its members.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and Foreign Minister Petr Macinka on Tuesday opened a conference bringing together Czech economic, agricultural and science diplomats from the country's embassies and consulates, along with representatives of key agencies supporting exports and investment.

The five-day working meeting, held at the Czernin Palace in Prague, is focused on strengthening and more effectively advancing Czech economic interests abroad.

In his opening remarks, Foreign Minister Macinka said the role of the state is not to replace the market or private enterprise, but to create conditions that enable Czech companies to succeed even in the most demanding international markets.

Prime Minister Babiš stressed that that the government's foreign policy must be active, pragmatic and focused on delivering tangible results.

In the comind days the conference will feature panel discussions with the ministers of industry and trade, finance, defence, transport, agriculture, health and the environment.

Wednesday is expected to be bright and clear around the country with daytime highs between 27 and 32 degrees Celsius and possible heat storms in the afternoon hours.

Czech President Petr Pavel has appealed to the Constitutional Court in a ​dispute over the scope of his authority, after the government denied his ‌request to lead the Czech delegation to the upcoming NATO summit in Ankara.

According to the President's Office, the head of state is seeking a ruling requiring the government not to create administrative or other obstacles preventing the president from exercising his constitutional powers.

President Pavel considers the government’s decision to exclude him from the Czech delegation to the NATO summit in July an unprecedented and highly unfortunate step that restricts the constitutional powers of the head of state.

Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO) said he respects the president’s decision, but described it as unfortunate and not conductive to good relations between the country’s top officials.