Address by the President of the Slovak Republic at the New Year´s meeting with members of diplomatic corps, Bratislava, 19. 1. 2006

I want to start my speech by expressing my joy that as last year we are again meeting together at the Presidential Palace of the Slovak Republic. Let me offer a particular cordial word of welcome to twenty four Ambassadors who took up their posts in Bratislava in the past year and came to this New Year gathering for the first time. I would also like to notably welcome two new Ambassadors to the Slovak Republic, namely the Ambassadors of Portugal and the Republic of Korea, whose countries opened their embassies in Bratislava last year, and so they became first residential Ambassadors of their countries to Slovakia.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

the year of 2005 has passed. In spite of all those moving pictures brought by all mass media towards the end of the last year and on the first days of this year, it is already a fact that the calendar year of 2005 is over. Nevertheless, the end of 2005 does not mean the end of the problems - of the problems we have to deal with also this year. And there are quite a lot of them. The issue of world peace, hunger afflicting an extremely large part of the human population and to a major extent also humanity and spiritual values - those values we have to preserve for the future life on our planet.

You certainly followed together with us the events in the past year, our domestic developments as well international affairs. You will undoubtedly agree that the past year was interesting. It was the thirteenth year of the independence of the Slovak Republic. It was the year when we completed our first full year of membership in the European Union and NATO. I believe it is too early to make any major and final assessments and analyses. But I can say already now that it is obvious it was a very successful year regarding our membership in these structures. It was our aim to join them and we managed to do quite well acting as their full-fledged members.

We were fully aware that both the EU and NATO had brought along incalculable achievements in form of a stable peaceful development on our European continent, but we do not want to hide the fact that prosperity was also one of our major motivations to join these structures. It is our wish that the European Union make further progress and be even more successful than so far in the areas of economy, foreign policy and strengthening its impact on the global development.

In the first year of our membership, I dare say, we managed to sufficiently and clearly show that we would not like to be only a passive consumer of all those advantages of these structures. On the contrary, we want to be an active, reliable and also constructively acting member.

In February 2005 in Bratislava, we hosted the summit of the Presidents of the Russian Federation and the United States of America. It was that kind of international events that do not repeat so often. Therefore, I would like to take advantage of this occasion to thank the embassies of the Russian Federation and the United States of America, represented by you, Your Excellency Ambassador Udaltsov, and you, Your Excellency Ambassador Vallee, and through you also to your predecessors for their support so that this important event could take place in Slovakia. I am truly proud of having played a host to Presidents Bush and Putin. In the short time we had available I was pleased to show them the progress our still young country had made. I believe, Your Excellencies, that you also made a good thing of this extraordinary event as your analyses and information from Slovakia were very much demanded at that time.

In the past year, I made several foreign trips and received a number of representatives from your countries here in Slovakia. Also from this place I would like to thank all of you who participated in preparing my trips for your efforts and contribution to the great success of these trips. Now, I would like to particularly address you, Your Excellency Apostolic Nuncios, recalling the death of His Holiness Pope John Paul II. John Paul II wrote history of the 20th century and through his impressive personality he changed our world. Moreover, this Pope came from our neighbouring country and had a very special relation to Slovakia and Slovaks long before becoming the head of the Catholic Church. Your Excellency, I want to thank you for your support in organizing the Slovak participation in the funeral of this exceptional figure but also for your help in organizing the audience with the new head of the Catholic Church, Pope Benedict XVI, who received me in June last year as one of the first heads of state at all.

Your Excellencies,

at the numerous meetings with heads of state and other important world figures last year I really felt very proud of the obviously increasing international prestige of Slovakia. I was very much glad to be able to be present in the ceremony of naming a street in the capital of India after our Alexander Dubček. I was equally glad to be invited to official opening and naming a new street in the capital of Portugal after Bratislava. However, you do not need to worry I have succumbed to a national euphoria. No, I do not think Slovakia is exceptional in any way and better in anything than others. I do know we still have a lot of problems to solve and I have always been anxious to speak about them openly both, at home and abroad. I am fully aware that some new problems will come and new challenges will appear but our country will have to deal with them. I am also aware that in the next two years there will be a certain turning point in the course of events in Slovakia. A turning point in that sense that Slovakia will get a new position in such an organization as the United Nations Organization. Holding this position, Slovakia will want to show that it deserves to be accepted as a country willing to solve problems, and that Slovakia is not only de jure but also de facto independent and credible, and that viable politics, economy and culture have a future in our country.

I want to thank you, Your Excellencies, also because I know that your information and the information of your colleagues about Slovakia contributed to this position of our country. If you are familiar with my political course, then you know that I have never doubted that this time of Slovakia will come. However, I am more than happy that the destiny gave me the pleasure of seeing it to happen during my presidential term. I would like to offer each of you open doors and open ears of my Presidential Office and also of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic to solve problems in your regions and our common world which because of globalization, informatization and other “zations” becomes smaller and smaller, and thus a problem wherever in the world is increasingly often a problem also of such a small country as Slovakia.

Finally let me wish all of you and your loved ones all the best, a lot of happiness and health for the new year. May your work be beneficial to both, our country and your countries. May our cooperation result in success because, if we want to act for the good, we need each other. So once again all the best and I thank you for your coming today.