Today, President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gašparovič welcomed President of the United States of America George Bush with his wife and entourage at the Presidential Palace in Bratislava on the first visit by a US President to the Slovak Republic in history. After their talks, President Ivan Gašparovič expressed his pleasure that George Bush had decided to be the first American president to visit Slovakia. Nevertheless, as the President of the Slovak Republic mentioned at the meeting, he had met Bush senior, the father of the current American President, in Prague prior to this historic visit. President Ivan Gašparovič expressed his thanks and pleasure that the American and Russian presidents had chosen Bratislava as the venue for their summit.
The President of the Slovak Republic stated that this was the forth time he had met US President George Bush over the short period since taking up the office of President.
The American President described his visit to Slovakia as the most exciting part of his European tour.
George Bush said that the fact that the summit between the American President and President of the Russian Federation Vladimír Putin was held in the Slovak capital was a great message to all countries that had to fight and are still fighting for freedom and democracy. He said that Slovakia had succeeded in the tough struggle and democracy and freedom had been firmly rooted here. At the meeting, President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gašparovič was also thanked by the US President for hosting the summit. The US President added that the example of the fight for democracy and freedom set by Slovakia was worth following even for countries such as Afghanistan, Lebanon, Palestine, Belarus, Georgia or Ukraine.
At the meeting, President Ivan Gašparovič emphasised that only 13 years have passed since the Slovak Republic became independent and the building of democracy had not been simple or straightforward since the position of small states in the global lines of force is difficult and they need support from big countries. The President of the Slovak Republic also said that NATO and the EU were a guarantee of democracy and underscored the Slovak Republic’s responsible membership of the Alliance, which is proved by more than 700 soldiers participating in foreign missions. George Bush described this fact as a difficult yet good decision of the Slovak Republic, since Slovak soldiers are helping other nations in their quest for freedom and democracy.
The President of the Slovak Republic also mentioned the most urgent problem for the Slovak people with respect to the US, which is the visa requirement. President Ivan Gašparovič requested George Bush that the current visa regime for Slovak nationals visiting the US be re-evaluated.
George Bush noted on this issue that he had expected that this topic would be brought up and wanted his visit to Slovakia to leave a clear message for the people in Slovakia and other Easter European countries that he would endeavour to persuade the Congress to liberalise and simplify the visa regime in the future.
The US President also emphasised that the conditions for the liberalisation of the visa regime were not as good in the current American Congress as in the old EU member states. George Bush mentioned that a condition for the simplification of the visa regime was the Slovak Government’s ability to persuade the nationals of the Slovak Republic to come back to Slovakia after visiting the US. The US President also wants to give this message to the people in his speech at the Hviezdoslav Square in Bratislava. At the conclusion of the meeting with President Gašparovič, George Bush said that Slovakia is now a stable European democracy with an excellent tax system, educated workforce and constantly growing economy, which he thought was a very positive sign for foreign investors.
