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Czech President Petr Pavel has welcomed the outcome of the peace summit on Ukraine held in Switzerland over the weekend, saying that the expectations that it would bring at least some progress towards peace had been fulfilled. He said it was vitally important that an overwhelming number of countries had expressed support for the UN charter, Ukraine’s right of self-defense and the need to preserve the country’s territorial integrity. The fact that some of the participating states did not sign the joint final declaration does not automatically mean that they are in opposition, Mr. Pavel said. He described the summit as a first step on the road to peace, and stressed the importance of getting China on board as negotiations continue.

The two-day summit ended with a joint declaration stating that the territorial integrity of Ukraine must be the basis for any future peace agreement. It further called for the release of war prisoners and the return of all deported and displaced Ukrainian children, and the need to safeguard the nuclear installations in the country.

Slovakia’s newly-inaugurated president, Peter Pellegrini will pay a state visit to Czechia on June 26. President Pellegrini, who took office on Saturday, confirmed the planned visit in a discussion program on the Slovak public broadcaster RTVS. Mr. Pellegrini said that in an earlier conversation with the Czech head of state, President Pavel had hinted that the visit could be a symbol of reconciliation between the two countries following the Czech cabinet's decision in March to suspend intergovernmental consultations with Slovakia. The two countries, which have exceptionally close ties, disagree on the question of providing military aid to Ukraine. The Slovak government recently stopped all state-funded military aid to the country.

Thirteen Czechs were injured, five of them seriously, when a tourist bus crashed in Öxnadalur, in the northern part of Iceland on Saturday night, the ctk news agency reported citing the travel agency Adventura which organized the package tour. Five people were taken by helicopter to the National University Hospital in Reykjavík and are in intensive care. Two are in an induced sleep on breathing machines. The bus reportedly swerved off the road and overturned. According to local sources the coordination center for civil protection was activated because of the case and traffic across the highway was closed because of the accident.

Beer consumption in Czechia has dropped significantly in recent years, although it is still the highest in the world, Novinky.cz reported. The average number of beers drunk per capita in the Czech Republic last year, including infants, was 256 beers per head, which is the lowest number since 1963. According to experts the decline is likely to continue. The key reasons behind it are tighter family budgets and the rising cost of draught beer. People are drinking more at home and are consuming less  beer than they would with friends at the pub. Beer consumption reached a record high in 2005 when Czechs consumed 163.5 litres, or 327 beers per head.