US President Donald Trump has invited Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš to the White House, according to a statement released by the White House press department yesterday:
“President Donald J. Trump and First Lady Melania Trump will welcome Prime Minister Andrej Babis and Mrs. Monika Babisova of the Czech Republic for their first official visit to the White House on March 7, 2019.”
The statement goes on to say that the President and the Prime Minister will “discuss how best to advance relations between the United States and the Czech Republic and the need to confront together our shared global challenges, including cyber, energy security issues, and mutual trade concerns.”
US Ambassador Stephen King confirmed the announcement yesterday via Twitter.
I’m pleased to report that President Trump has extended an official invitation to Prime Minister @AndrejBabis to visit Washington on March 7 as a symbol of our strong bilateral relationship. A White House announcement is forthcoming soon. @strakovka
The Prime Minister’s visit is due to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the Velvet Revolution which saw an end to communist rule and the 20th anniversary of its membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
“The US Ambassador informed me that I was invited to the White House on March 7th. It’s the culmination of our relationship with the US.”
Babiš join the ranks of the seven Czech statesmen who have visited the Oval Office before him including including Václav Havel and former Prime Minister, Petr Nečas, who visited in 2011 at the invitation of former President Barack Obama.
The billionaire and media mogul is often referred to as “the Czech Trump” for saying that he’d “run the country like a business” and for his anti-immigration politics.
In an interview with The Washington Post the Czech PM pointed out one difference between himself and the US President, saying: “I’ve never gone bankrupt.”