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Dzurinda in Prague Confirms Interest in Exceptional Mutual Relations
Thursday 15 July 2010 Zoom in | Print page
Prague, July 15 (TASR) - Bilateral relations, Visegrad co-operation, energy issues and the EU agenda were discussed by Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Mikulas Dzurinda and his Czech counterpart Karl Schwarzenberg in Prague on Thursday.
This was Dzurinda's first foreign working visit and Schwarzenberg appreciated that he headed straight for Prague.
"I have always been and I will always be immensely interested in not only maintaining but also developing the above-standard relations on the basis of our common activities," Dzurinda said after the meeting. "(The relations) between us are literally brotherly. I like to speak about Slovak-Czech or Czech-Slovak mutuality, I extremely like to speak about the period when we promoted our relations by individual agreement to a really above-standard level, which has led, for example, to 20,000 Slovaks studying at Czech universities today. This is what I want to built on," added Dzurinda, who also spoke about the mutual understanding and support.
Dzurinda expressed his hopes that the Visegrad Four (V4/Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary) becomes "more recognised" not only within the EU, but also within the wider international community. Slovakia will officially preside over V4 as of Tuesday, July 20.
The talks also touched on lending money to Greece. Dzurinda stressed that Slovakia had to invest a considerable amount of money in stabilising the banking sector a decade ago, so that "we don't owe anything to anybody".
"Our stance (on the Greek bail-out) isn't formed or motivated by making life more complicated for anybody. We want to focus on the dimension of responsible behaviour – for the future and the reforms of European institutions and European policies. I'm convinced that if we support the tendencies of irresponsibility, it'll return back to us tomorrow in an unbearable form," he warned, adding that this is why new Prime Minister Iveta Radicova supported the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF), but recommended her MPs to vote against Slovakia's participation in lending money to Greece.
Schwarzenberg didn't comment on the Slovak stance. "What they're going to do with Slovak money, that's not our business," he said.
Dzurinda also met with Czech Parliamentary Chair Miroslava Nemcova and Prime Minister Petr Necas.
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