The Czechoslovak Foreign Institute awarded by the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China after 25 years of cooperation
On 20 January 2017, the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute received the Silver Plate from the Chinese ambassador H. E. Ma Keqing in recognition of long-term cooperation with the Chinese Embassy and China. The dedication on the Silver Plate says:
The award for special benefits to the Chinese – Czech friendship.
The award was presented at the Chinese Embassy, where to the ambassador has invited representatives of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute. Nearly 20 members of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute including its chairman Jaromír Šlápota met also with the representatives of Comenius association, of the Czech-Chinese common chamber of commerce and industry and of the Czechoslovak – Chinese chamber of commerce. “The Czechoslovak Foreign Institute, Comenius and both the chambers have been developing cooperation with China and supporting it for years. It’s a big benefit for us,” the ambassador said in her speech. She mentioned that the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute had provided support also in periods when the Czech Republic’s official relations with China were limited, and that’s something to thank the Institute for”. Therefore, the Embassy has decided to award the Institute for the excellent contribution to the Czech – Chinese friendship. Relations between the two countries are currently developing positively, but there are still some difficult points in which support from Czech investors is important for China, the ambassador pointed out. “I hope that the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute, Comenius and both the chambers will continue to support the development of relations between the Czech Republic and the People’s Republic of China,” she added, and then she invited representatives of awarded institutions to receive the prize presented by the Chinese Embassy for the first time in history.
The ambassador invited the chairman of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute Jaromír Šlápota to present his speech; he said among other: “It’s a great honour for us to be the first awarded by this prize,” Jaromír Šlápota stressed on behalf of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute. “We are glad that we could find mutual understanding. It’s not easy to understand the world power that survived centuries, wars, that weakened it, but it always succeeded to develop and build even more impressive works than its ancestors and other countries” He mentioned that the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute opened and developed friendly relations with a number of civic associations in China since 1992 and that the Institute is ready to develop them further in future.
Photo František Řečinský
New Year Meeting in Strahov Monastery
It has become a tradition that members and friends of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute meet at the turn of the year and they express their wishes to the New Year. For the sixth time this year they have accepted the invitation of the member of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute, abbot Michael Josef Pojezdný and they came in a big number to the refectory of Strahov Monastery on January 25 at five p.m. Among the guests, there was the Chinese ambassador H. E. Ma Keqing, other representatives of the embassies and public figures.
The social evening started with sightseeing of a famous Strahov library. After that the chairman of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute Jaromír Šlápota welcomed guests in the refectory of the monastery and invited them to listen to music performed by Felix Slováček, the member of the Institute. Then the abbot Pojezdný spoke. “I don’t know how to speak the same way Mr. Slováček can play,” he said but convinced everybody that he knows it by following sentences. He expressed wish that “the Lord God keep us sane in the current tense time, when we hear from the media, how politicians quarrel and it hits us.” He recommended us to allow ourselves a moment every day to reflect our own lives and our goals. “Everyone should have the right to create relationships and he needs internal peace to do so. Only then he can see who needs help. If we find such moments, we will like life more, we will be able to perceive beauty that we have friends and people to lean on.”
At the end, the chairman of the Czechoslovak Foreign Institute Jaromír Šlápota made a wish and he thanked to all who had made the meeting in the Strahov Monastery pleasant, namely to Hana Hlaváčková, Božena Zychová, František Řečinský and also to teacher Antonínová, students of the Secondary school of hotel and gastronomy in Praha-Klánovice, to Tereza Šlápotová and her classmates for their care about the guests and he wished everybody good relations, friendship and to meet there next year again.
Photo Lukáš Panoch and František Řečinský