President of the Republic of Macedonia Branko Crvenkovski pays official visit to the Slovak Republic

President of the Republic of Macedonia Branko Crvenkovski, with his wife Jasmina, paid a two-day official visit to the Slovak Republic.

President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gašparovič, with his wife Silvia, welcomed the guests at the Presidential Palace in Bratislava.
Both presidents emphasised the importance of the meeting, during which they discussed bilateral relations as well as current multilateral issues connected particularly with Macedonia’s ambitions to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union.

Within the provision of “Official Development Assistance”, the Slovak Republic, as an OECD member, placed Macedonia on the list of priority countries. Slovakia appreciates that Macedonia is prepared to become a reliable partner of the EU and a stabilizing factor in this region. “In the period from 2003 to 2007, six development programmes were approved, four of which have already been completed”, the Slovak President noted with satisfaction.

According to President Ivan Gašparovič, Macedonia clearly meets the status of a candidate country to join NATO. “Macedonia is on the right path to meet the conditions”, the President said. Branko Crvenkovsi informed his Slovak counterpart about Macedonia’s standpoint towards the dispute with Greece regarding the name of the country.

The presidents also tackled the issue of Kosovo. The Macedonian President mentioned that his visit was taking place during a very exceptional period – only a few weeks before the NATO summit in Bucharest where the decision regarding an invitation for Macedonia to join NATO will be made. “I was happy to hear the opinion of President Ivan Gašparovič that Macedonia met all criteria to receive an invitation to become a member”, the Macedonian President said.

With the participation of heads of states in the Presidential Palace, the State Secretary of the Slovak Ministry of Transport, Posts and Telecommunications, Milan Mojš, and the State Secretary of the Macedonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zoran Petrov, signed an intergovernmental Agreement on international road, passenger and freight traffic.

In Bratislava, the Macedonian President Branko Crvenkovski had lunch with the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and a meeting with the Vice Chair of the Slovak National Council Anna Belousová. During the second day of his trip to Slovakia he visited Nitra and Trnava.