It offers the last chance for a big car maker to gain a Central European brand on the cheap, now that Volkswagen owns Skoda of the Czech Republic and Renault has Dacia of Romania.
His route ran close to those neighbours' borders, with brief hops across, for instance to meet the Polish president and prime minister, and to visit a Skoda car factory, in the Czech republic but owned by Volkswagen.
Most tellingly, where Czech companies have received a hefty capital injection, as has Skoda Auto (now a subsidiary of Volkswagen), they have done well.