New hospitals and drinking water. The Czech Republic is participating in the reconstruction of Ukraine with an Asian ally

From our correspondent in Taiwan – Cooperation between the Czech Republic and the island in Southeast Asia began last fall, when government representatives signed a memorandum of cooperation on the reconstruction of Ukraine. The discussion of specific steps came up in mid-March, when the government representative for the reconstruction of Ukraine Tomáš Kopečný visited Taiwan.

The way in which the Czech side organizes humanitarian aid for the attacked country is not significantly different from the way it finds hundreds of thousands of pieces of artillery ammunition. “The Czech Republic has expertise and projects that it does on a small scale. But we are expanding them with our partners,” explains Kopečný in Taipei for Aktuálně.cz. “It corresponds to the overall strategy we have, which is to show the direction and do pilot projects, which we then offer to partners who are not very familiar with the Ukrainian environment. We will then help them with implementation,” he explains.

“In short, we are usually the first to do something, and other states that have the funds for it, but not the know-how, join us,” he adds.

For the same reason, he addressed Taiwan and the Czech government, which, after consultations with the Ukrainian side, knows what specific help is currently most needed. Together, the countries will focus on three sectors of cooperation – they will provide water purifiers, generators of electricity and heat, and invest in the health sector.

According to Kopečný, Czech-Taiwanese cooperation could help a few hundred thousand people in the Dnepropetrovsk and Kharkiv regions next year. The Russian army previously damaged them significantly. Specifically, the initiative will provide basic care to approximately 30,000 patients in eight hospitals, who will be able to be treated in the intensive care unit, gynecology, pediatrics and surgery. The initiative will also help tens of thousands of residents who lost their source of drinking water with the destruction of the Kachovská Dam last June.

An initiative from which Czech companies also benefit

In addition to the Czech Republic, Taiwan also cooperates with Poland and Lithuania on humanitarian aid. The Department of European Relations at the Taiwanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs explains this to Aktuálně.cz in terms of the political setting of the countries.

The government representative adds that the willingness of domestic companies involved in providing humanitarian aid to use components from Taiwan also played a role. “The project helps the Czech economy, Taiwanese companies and, significantly, the Ukrainians as well. We are thus ‘ticking off’ all the boxes of why it is viable,” he evaluates.

According to Kopečný, the possibility of Taiwan’s involvement in the ammunition initiative was not a topic of negotiation. The Taiwanese ministry added that the island is currently focusing mainly on humanitarian aid and the reconstruction of the attacked country. The Asian island has sent 27 tons of medical supplies and another 700 tons of humanitarian aid to Ukraine since the start of the war in February last year, according to local news site Focus Taiwan.

Czech-Taiwanese relations, whose governments do not maintain official diplomatic ties, have been improving in recent years. This is evidenced by the bilateral trips of political delegations, the phone call between President Petr Pavl and the Taiwanese President Chai Jing-wen, or the presence of the Czech think tank European Values ​​in Taiwan. It is the only European think tank that has a presence on the island. Last week, the elected Vice President of Taiwan Hsiao Bi-khim, who will assume the position in May, also visited Prague on her first foreign visit.

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