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Czech President Petr Pavel and his wife Eva have begun an official visit to Argentina, arriving in Buenos Aires on Monday. Their first day includes a visit to the Holocaust Museum and the opening of a business forum, accompanied by a delegation focused mainly on defence and security cooperation. Pavel is also due to meet members of the Czech community, one of the largest in Latin America. Talks with Argentine President Javier Milei and lower house speaker Martín Menem are planned. Both countries share similar positions on international issues, including support for Ukraine and Israel, and seek closer cooperation with NATO.

MEP Alexandr Vondra says that Hungary under Viktor Orban remains a democratic country and that Sunday’s elections are free. He made the comment in a Czech Television debate show. Pavel Telička, a former MEP, also rejected the idea that Hungary had an authoritarian regime, though he said its election campaign had not been entirely fair.

Both politicians said Peter Magyar, who is challenging Mr. Orban, was likely to win and would improve relations between Budapest and the European Union.

The Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed regret about comments made by President Petr Pavel about the US head of state, Donald Trump. In a statement issued on Sunday, the ministry said Mr. Pavel’s views did not represent the official position of the Czech government.

Mr. Pavel said recently that Mr. Trump had done more to undermine NATO’s credibility in weeks that Russia’s Vladimir Putin had in several years.

The minister of foreign affairs, Petr Macinka, has had a number of clashes with the Czech president, who refused to appoint his party colleague Filip Turek to a ministerial post.

The leader of coalition party Freedom and Direct Democracy, Tomio Okamura, says one solution to high energy and fuel costs would be to take gas and oil from Russia. Speaking to TV Nova, Mr. Okamura – who is also speaker of the lower house – said this would allow Czechia to diversify its sources once again and to guarantee its energy security.

This call has been rejected by members of the previous government, who ended Czech dependency on imports from Russia following its full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Ex-PM Petr Fiala called on current government head Andrej Babiš to disown talk of such “collaborationist” cooperation with Moscow.