Czech PM Fiala arrives in Kazakhstan as part of Asian tour

Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala arrived in Kazakhstan on Sunday afternoon as part of 10-day tour that has taken him to several Asian states. He is due to meet President Kasym-Zomart Tokayev and Prime Minister Alikhan Smajlov on Monday. He will also launch a business forum.

Kazakhstan is Czechia’s most important trading partner in the Central Asian region and was the second largest oil supplier Czechia in 2021. The main topics of discussion during Mr. Fiala’s stay will be energy, transport, defence and defence-industrial cooperation.

The Czech leader will also visit the “Akmolinsk Camp for the Wives of Traitors to the Motherland” (ALZHIR), a Gulag camp that housed the wives, daughters and sisters of men accused of treason. The website of the Czech Embassy in Astana says two Czech women were among the prisoners.