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Bratislava – The Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic Juraj Blanár (Smer-SD) and the head of Czech diplomacy Jan Lipavský agreed on further cooperation between the two neighboring states and EU member countries on Tuesday. They also agreed on the need for open communication. During Tuesday’s phone conversation, Blanár also accepted an invitation to visit the Czech Republic. This was reported to TASR by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs (MZVEZ) of the Slovak Republic.
Blanár pointed out that despite various views on foreign policy developments, which are also felt at meetings at the EU level, he agreed with his Czech counterpart that open communication is the most important.
„It is necessary to talk to everyone – even those with whom we disagree or have disagreements. Otherwise, it would be difficult to find a consensus, which is the essence of all agreements, including international ones, to which both our republics adhere,“ stated Blanár.
The ministers raised several issues that await them this year. Blanár offered Lipavský to symbolically prepare an event in Topoľčianky, uniting both states as the summer residence of former presidents since the times of T. G. Masaryk, whose 175th birth anniversary we commemorate this year.
They also discussed the meeting of Central European countries in the C5 format (Czech Republic, Hungary, Austria, Slovakia, and Slovenia), which the Slovak ministry wants to organize in the second half of the year, as well as the Slavkov format S3 (Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia) meeting, chaired by the Czech Republic at present.
„My Czech colleague informed me that they are prepared to organize the meeting, but we agreed that currently, complex negotiations are taking place after the parliamentary elections in Austria on forming the government, and therefore we will wait for the new Austrian government, and depending on that, either the Czech Republic, if time allows, or Slovakia after July 1, when we take over the leadership within S3, will organize a meeting on current topics,“ added Blanár.
The Slovak minister also accepted an invitation to visit the Czech Republic. He plans to go in the spring. „We also agreed that by our meeting, the plan for consultations at the expert level between both departments will be finalized, which follows up on the joint cooperation protocol from 2014. We plan to jointly sign this consultation plan during my visit to the Czech Republic,“ explained Blanár. (January 7)
„It is necessary to talk to everyone – even those with whom we disagree or have disagreements. Otherwise, it would be difficult to find a consensus, which is the essence of all agreements, including international ones.“ Juraj Blanár
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