Speech of the PM M. Topolánek on the Occasion of the Vietnamese National Day – the Declaration of Independence of Vietnam, given on 2nd Septembe

Vietnam is both – a distant and a close country. Personal closeness overcomes the geographical and cultural distance. There is no such Asian country with which we have so many contacts, as Vietnam. The Declaration of Independence of Vietnam has connection with liberalization of my country after the six-month occupation. It is an evidence of the fact that the world was interlinked as early as more than sixty years ago and that our nations had more things common than people realized. Our nations have become even closer during this time.

I myself have had a Vietnamese friend since my youth. Vietnamese have become established in the Czech Republic. Our common guiding principle is that there are lots of those who had studied at Czech universities among Vietnamese politicians, businessmen and intellectuals. I have already said on certain occasion that it was such a small Czech-Vietnamese globalization. We can really serve as an example of how to overcome differences and on the contrary to use them for mutual enrichment. It is just this ability the success in today's world is based on. Flexibility and knowledge of more cultural contexts is a great advantage in the global competition.

Your country can serve as an example of this. The Vietnamese economy is one of the fastest growing economies in the world and your people are well integrating into the Czech society. Despite cultural differences, they have indisputable advantages: industriousness, modesty and that flexibility. Tens of thousand of Vietnamese who studied in our country in the past and other tens of thousand who are living here nowadays logically influenced cultures of both your and our country. We know well each other, apparently better than for example citizens of more distant parts of Europe.

I would like our cooperation to continue, so that we could use this unique human potential. I wish all Vietnamese, on the occasion of their National Day, personal happiness, independence and freedom. For that matter, these are universal human values which hold true regardless the distance.