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Bratislava – Foreign Minister of the Slovak Republic Juraj Blanár (Smer-SD) and Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavský agreed on Tuesday on further cooperation between the two neighboring states and EU member countries. They also agreed on the need for open communication. During Tuesday’s telephone conversation, Blanár also accepted an invitation to visit the Czech Republic. This was reported to TASR by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic (MZVEZ).
Blanár pointed out that despite different perspectives on foreign policy events, which can be felt at meetings at the EU level, he agreed with his Czech counterpart that the most important thing is open communication.
“It is necessary to talk to everyone – even with those we disagree with or do not agree with on something. Otherwise, it would be difficult to reach a consensus, which is the essence of all agreements, including international ones, to which both our republics subscribe,” stated Blanár.
The ministers raised several questions 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 are commemorating 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 meeting of the Slavkov format S3 (Czech Republic, Austria, Slovakia), currently chaired by the Czech Republic.
“The Czech colleague informed me that they are ready to organize the meeting, but we agreed that currently, there are complex negotiations after the parliamentary elections in Austria about forming a government, and therefore, for this reason, 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 the S3, we will organize a meeting on current topics,” added Blanár.
The Slovak minister also accepted an invitation to visit the Czech Republic. The visit is planned for the spring. “We also agreed that by our meeting, the consultation plan at the expert level between both ministries, which follows up on the joint cooperation protocol from 2014, will be finalized. 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 with those we disagree with or do not agree with on something. Otherwise, it would be difficult to reach a consensus, which is the essence of all agreements, including international ones.” Juraj Blanár
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