Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski arrived in Slovakia to pay his farewell visit. After the official welcoming ceremony at the court of the Presidential Palace, the delegations of the Republic of Poland and the Slovak Republic met for bilateral talks. After completing the talks, President Ivan Gašparovič underlined that all the meetings with the Polish President had always been inspiring very much. He stressed the significant harmony of the opinions of the developments in Europe, in particular in the context of the uneasy position of Slovakia towards the world politics. On this occasion, President Ivan Gašparovič thanked the Polish partner for supporting Slovak integration efforts. Instead of nostalgia, the President of the Slovak Republic emphasized the constructive spirit of the dialogue. Both Partners declared their identical position to developing the EU values as well as common future projects considered by both President very important. Their discussion included also the topic of regional and global common projects. They pointed out the need of an equivalent dialogue with the USA, and discussed both, positive and negative aspects of globalization. Their topics did not avoid the V4 cooperation, either. Both Presidents regard it as important in the sense of active presence in European structures. They talked also about the future cooperation in the field of economy, culture, and education, also in terms of perspective of such cooperation. President Ivan Gašparovič expressed his conviction that the end of the presidential term of President Kwasniewski does not mean an end of his presence in the Polish or world politics.
President Alexander Kwasniewski thanked President Ivan Gašparovič for his appreciation of his 10-year being in the office of the Polish head of state. „I remember very well where we started, and now I know where we are today,” said the Polish President in connection with the memberships of both countries in the NATO and the EU, and in connection with the regional and V4 cooperation, which may be regarded as commonplace today, but it took a lot of mutual efforts to reach this situation. President Kwasniewski highlighted the quality of the bilateral cooperation and expressed his conviction that it would be even further improved. He clearly said that the past decade became a well used opportunity in the interest of both countries at the right time. At the end of his speech, President Kwasniewski expressed his belief that the relations of the two countries would keep improving, also after taking the office by the new Polish Government, so that “ the new house of Polish-Slovak relations could be even nicer and stronger”, said Polish President Alexander Kwasniewski.
