Beijing, Jan 28 (CTK) – Chinese President Xi Jinping congratulated his Czech counterpart Milos Zeman on his re-election on Saturday, the New China press agency reported today.
Zeman, 73, won the weekend presidential runoff vote with 51.4 percent of the vote, beating academic Jiri Drahos (48.6 percent), and he will remain head of state for another five years.
Xi Jinping said in his congratulations that Chinese-Czech relations had been developing intensively in the past few years and that he was ready to lift both countries’ strategic partnership to a higher level.
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Zeman on his re-election as head of state on Saturday.
Zeman has repeatedly boosted good relations with China and Russia.
He met his Chinese counterpart during his visit to Prague in March 2016 and they also met in Beijing last year.
Zeman is opposed to international sanctions imposed on Russia in reaction to the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Last year, he called the annexation of Crimea a fait accompli and said Kiev and Moscow should agree on a compensation for it.