President of Romania on Official Visit to the Slovak Republic

Romanian President Traian Basescu arrived for an official two-day visit to the Slovak Republic. The official welcoming ceremony at the Presidential Palace court was followed by plenary talks of the delegations of both countries.
After the end of the talks, President Ivan Gašparovič said that the leading topic of discussions had been the support of the Slovak Republic for the integration ambition of Romania to join the European Union. The Romanian party supposes that the entry will take place in 2007. Romania, actually, does not figure on any other scenario. Regarding wider integration contexts, the partners also talked about the Western Balkan countries, the Black Sea region, the Ukraine and Belorussia. In addition, the partners discussed the topic of ethnic minorities living in both countries. Moreover, the subjects of talks included the issues of cooperation in the fields of education, science, and culture as well as the issues related to dynamization of the mutual economic cooperation, investment possibilities, including investment possibilities of joint Romanian-Slovak entities in third countries. In this context, the programme of the official visit of the Romanian President to Slovakia included also signing the Supplementary Protocol between the Slovak Republic and Romania to the Agreement between the Slovak Republic and Romania on Support and Mutual Protection of Investments. Following the end of the talks, the Romanian President thanked the Slovak party for its supporting the integration efforts of Romania to join the EU.