Focus
Statement by Clive Alderton, Private Secretary for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs about upcoming visits to Poland, Hungary and Czech Republic
12th February 2010
This spring Her Majesty’s Government have asked The Prince and The Duchess to visit three countries in Central Europe: Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic.
The timing of course is no accident – the visit comes two decades after the fall of the Berlin Wall. Our former Warsaw Pact communist adversaries have become our close friends, as members of NATO (which all three countries joined in 1999) and of the EU.
For diplomats like me who all those years ago served behind the Iron Curtain, the transformation has been absolutely extraordinary and is something which is, perhaps, not sufficiently often remembered or celebrated.
Against this backdrop, and at the time of this important anniversary, the themes for the visit are climate change, military co-operation, faith and minority communities, culture and youth employment.
You will all know that Her Majesty’s Government continues to play a leading international role in climate change discussions across the world. We are very lucky to have, in The Prince of Wales, someone with 40 years of work and experience on environmental issues and who can help lead the charge for Britain.
The visit programmes have been specifically structured to support HMG’s strategic priorities on climate change. The Prince of Wales was, of course, asked by the UN and Danish Government to give an opening address at the high level segment of the Copenhagen Climate Summit last December and, in Central Europe, His Royal Highness will be meeting Presidents, Prime Ministers and others to take forward those discussions and also to see practical examples of that work on the ground.
To set the visit in context, Poland was the first Central European country to overthrow communist rule in 1989. Its population of 38 millon makes it the most populous state in Central Europe. It is one of the fastest growing economies in Europe and a major trading partner for the UK. It joined the EU in 2004 and, with the UK, is a member of the “Big Six”.
I mentioned NATO just now and military co-operation is also an important theme of the visit. The Polish Army is again deploying to Afghanistan next month. In Warsaw, Their Royal Highnesses will visit troops of the First Armoured Brigade in the final stages of pre-deployment training. Their Royal Highnesses will view a training exercise as well as meeting soldiers and their families.
Hungary is also an important EU and NATO partner. President Solyom shares a strong interest in the environment with The Prince of Wales and invited His Royal Highness to see at first hand some of Hungary’s work and to exchange views on best practice, particularly following The Prince of Wales’s speech in Copenhagen.
The programme in the Czech Republic will also focus on environmental issues, with a day of visits to a series of practical sustainability projects outside Prague.
The UK is keen to engage the Czech authorities more on this agenda and The Prince of Wales’s visit plays an important role in that process.
His Royal Highness has known former President Havel - the first President after the fall of Communism following the “Velvet Revolution” in 1989 - for many years and looks forward to seeing him again.