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Prime Minister Petr Fiala said after meeting with Slovak President Peter Pellegrini on Wednesday afternoon that the development of relations between Czechia and Slovakia are extremely important and that he appreciated the fact that Mr Pellegrini upheld the tradition of making Czechia the destination of his first official foreign visit as the new Slovak head of state. The two politicians met for roughly half an hour at Straka Academy, the seat of the Czech government in Prague, where they discussed bilateral relations, defence cooperation, and the agenda for the upcoming European Council meeting.

Shortly before the meeting, the Slovak government criticised the Czech prime minister for a statement he made on Tuesday saying that resuming intergovernmental consultations with Slovakia would not be on the agenda for the meeting and that it was premature to even consider it given the health status of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. Bratislava accused the Czech prime minister of being disrespectful. A spokesperson for the Czech government said that on the contrary, Mr Fiala's statement was an expression of respect for the Slovak Prime Minister, who is currently convalescing at home after the assassination attempt against him in May.

The Czech cabinet suspended intergovernmental consultations between Czechia and Slovakia in March due to disagreements over key foreign policy issues.

Bratislava has criticised Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala's statement on Tuesday that resuming intergovernmental consultations with Slovakia, which the Czech government suspended in March, is not on the agenda for Wednesday's meeting with Slovak President Peter Pellegrini and that it is premature to consider it given the health status of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. The Office of the Slovak Government told the Czech News Agency that it finds his statements disrespectful.

A spokesperson for the Czech government said that on the contrary, Mr Fiala's statement was an expression of respect for the Slovak Prime Minister, who is currently convalescing at home after the assassination attempt on him in May.

Czechia has so far met only one of the four criteria necessary for admission into the eurozone, that one criterion being the convergence of long-term interest rates, the European Commission stated on Wednesday in its Convergence Report 2024. The country has however not achieved price stability, healthy public finances or exchange rate stability, although the EC expects that it will soon achieve the second of these three unmet criteria.

In its report, the Commission assessed six EU member states that have pledged to eventually switch to the euro as their primary currency, the other five being Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, Romania and Sweden. Not one of these countries yet fulfills all the necessary criteria, and in the case of Poland and Hungary, not a single criterion has been met.

The Czech and Slovak stances on the war in Ukraine aren't as different from each other as has often been made out, Czech President Petr Pavel said after meeting with his Slovak counterpart Peter Pellegrini at Prague Castle on Wednesday. Both presidents agreed that relations between the two countries are not defined only by foreign policy and that the two neighbouring states are still linked historically, culturally and economically. Mr Pellegrini said that the special relationship between them cannot be damaged or threatened by differences of opinion over certain foreign policy issues.

The pair met to discuss bilateral relations as part of the Slovak head of state's first official visit to Czechia since taking up office. The Slovak president began his visit on Wednesday morning by paying his respects to the victims of the December shooting at Charles University's Faculty of Arts in Prague.

It is a tradition that the first official foreign visit made by new Czech and Slovak presidents after assuming office is to each other's respective countries. Mr Pellegrini took up office on 15 June this year. Shortly before this, his predecessor Zuzana Čaputová made a farewell visit to Prague.