Ambassador of the Czech Republic to India Eliska Zigova, who is also accredited to Nepal, presented her credentials to President Ramchandra Paudel. In her almost three decades of diplomatic career, the Czech envoy has served in various diplomatic missions in different capacities. She had served as Director, Asia and Pacific Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Prague, Czechia, before being appointed as Czech Republic's Ambassador to India last year. Ram Kumar Kamat of The Himalayan Times caught up with her and discussed areas of cooperation between the two countries. Excerpts:

How do you look at our bilateral relations? What needs to be done to promote them?

First of all, I would say our relations with Nepal have remained very friendly. There is no irritant in our relationship but I would like to see much more intensive cooperation.

I would like to see our relations develop further on all levels - political, business, culture and sports, but first of all I would like to focus on developing our political and business relations.

What areas of trade do you think both Nepal and Czech Republic can benefit from through cooperation?

At present we have very little cooperation in trade. This is not because we have problems or we do not want it. There are no problems in our relationship. If we could not move faster in the field of trade, then it was because of the COV- ID-19 pandemic and lack of our ambassador in New Delhi who could cover Nepal. I have presented my credentials to the president.

As far as the areas of cooperation are concerned, in 2015, there was an official visit from our Ministry of Trade to Nepal and an agreement was signed, but it was not implemented.

There was no return visit from the Nepali side. We hope that Nepal will now send its officials to our country. Officials from both sides can explore areas of cooperation.

I think Nepal could benefit from Czech investment in hydel power, agriculture, education etc.

In what areas do you think Czech investors will be interested to invest in Nepal?

Our investors may be interested to invest in hydel power sector and automobile sector first. Skoda is a Czech company which produces cars in India. So, maybe it will be good to cooperate in this sector.

Other areas where Czech investors may be interested to invest is infrastructure and transport. Business needs to expand between our two countries.

What is the prospect of cooperation between the two countries in the tourism sector?

Czech people like adventure tourism. They are enthusiastic about trekking and mountaineering and you have very good destinations for our alpinists and trekkers.

Nepal is popular for cheap trekking and mountaineering. Our people love outdoor activities. If there are promotional programmes, I am sure people from our countries would love to visit Nepal. Many people who wanted to visit Nepal could not do so because of COVID-19 pandemic.

During that time nobody travelled out of the country.

There are some limits, but I think more and more Czech people will visit Nepal. Czech people do not fancy luxurious hotels.

Rather, they will be happy with the local environment, but of course, it must be clean and comfortable. I have the impression that you have such environment in mountainous areas. People in Nepal are very good at receiving tourists and guests.

Nepal has received very little investment from your country. Do you see prospects of Czech investment increasing in Nepal in the near future?

We have a war in Ukraine which is very brutal. It was unexpected because people never think that something like will ever happen in Europe. It has consequences for business as well because the Russian market is close for our businesses and there is Belarus and some other unsafe countries around so now European businesses are looking to do business with Asian and South Asian countries.

Our business people worked in a different environment with a different mentality in the past and now they are dealing with a new business environment in Asia. As far as the investment from Czech Republic to Nepal is concerned, it is very much connected with the assessment of our investors. They will asses whether or not the Nepali market is good, safe and promising for their investment so I can't say it now how much they will invest in Nepal.

How can we develop our political relations?

We can start with increased visits between our two countries and those visits should not only be limited to higher level dignitaries, but also lower-level government officials from ministries as well as increased people to people contacts.

We very much appreciate Nepal's vote at the UN against Russian aggression in Ukraine because we know how difficult it is for Nepal.

You are between India and China and India was abstaining and remaining neutral on the Ukraine issue and China was not voting against (Russian aggression). This is appreciated and very well noted so we would like to increase political consultations with Nepal and it could be bilateral or international consultations at the UN and different conferences.

The Ukraine war has impacted the entire world. What impacts were felt in your country?

In the beginning of the war, we received very large number of refugees from Ukraine. They were mostly women and children running away from war with just one suitcase in their hands. We managed very well to accommodate them because at that time there was no refugee camp. We proved that we could manage this crisis situation. The consequence of the war is that we, like other countries, have been cut off from Russian oil.

Together with other EU countries, we have managed energy from different sources. We are not dependent on Russia. The war has adverse impact on our business but not a great deal because we now have the opportunity to do business with other markets.

This war has caused more emotional impacts in Europe. On Thursday, attacks were launched on a coffee shop and grocery shops in Ukraine that killed 60 civilians.

The war has seriously impacted the food chain across the world because Ukraine grains cannot be exported to other countries.

Sunflower oil is missing in India.

Africa is now on the brink of hunger as a result of this war. We need to have collective efforts to stop this crazy behaviour.

Do you see any possibility of this war ending soon?

This war could end if the Russians leave the territories they occupied.

But this is wishful thinking because they will not do it. I think it could go on to another year. Let's just hope that this war ends soon but we have to prepare ourselves for a longer war because war is war and armies are fighting. The Russian side is targeting infrastructure and civilian places such as pizzeria, coffee shops and hospitals.

Some are comparing Russian aggression to that of attacks launched by Hamas and ISIS against Israel.

What are your views on rules-based international order?

Rules based order is very important to keep international peace and maintain progress. It is because of rules based order that we cannot agree to lose Ukrainian territory.

There are some people who say let's agree on some territorial loss for Ukraine and have peace, but we cannot agree to that because that will set a bad precedent in the world. It will embolden some forces and they might think 'we can do whatever we want.' To keep rules-based order we must tell those that think that being powerful gives them licence that okay you have power but you have to behave in accordance with the rules and you cannot do anything to a small and weaker neighbour.

A version of this article appears in the print on October 8, 2023, of The Himalayan Times