President of the Slovak Republic pays a working visit to the USA

From 22 September to 28 September, Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič and his wife paid a working visit to the United States of America. As the head of the Slovak delegation the President participated at the 62nd Session of the UN General Assembly, which took place in New York.

The Slovak President also attended the 30th Slovak Heritage Festival and met with compatriots in Holmdel, New Jersey.

The President of the Slovak Republic took part in the High-Level Event on Climate Change entitled “The Future in our Hands: Addressing the Leadership Challenge of Climate Change”. Standpoints of the Slovak Republic regarding current issues were presented by Ivan Gašparovič at the debate of the General Assembly.

In his address the President stated that despite partial success, the pace and scope of the UN reform process were not quite satisfactory. According to the President: “it is necessary to set up the UN so as to ensure both the targeted prevention and solution of specific problems and conflicts”. Slovakia highly praises the establishment of the Peacebuilding Commission, stated Gašparovič - emphasising that the Commission should become a pivotal tool in post-conflict stabilisation.

Ivan Gašparovič said that Slovakia welcomed the commencement of work by the Human Rights Council. He also expressed the belief that other UN Member States would support the candidacy of the Slovak Republic to the Council for the years 2008-2011.

 In his address the Slovak President emphasized the need of the UN reform with regard to which he said that the UN reform could not be complete without additionally “reforming the structure and working methods of the UN Security Council”. He stressed that Slovakia takes an active role in this process as a non-permanent UN Security Council member.

The number of both permanent and non-permanent UN Security Council members should increase, claimed Ivan Gašparovič. “Not even the UN General Assembly may evade the reform effort,” he said adding that “the UN General Assembly should find mechanisms which allow the monitoring of the implementation of its decisions and at the same time eliminate obsolete measures, which burden its functioning. At a UN Security Council meeting the Slovak President accentuated that the maximum emphasis should be placed on conflict prevention.

In his speech, Ivan Gašparovič underlined that Africa’s tragedies should be viewed in the broader context of security, human rights and the development of African countries. He also mentioned the tragedies of great scope in Rwanda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Darfur and Northern Uganda.

According to the President, Slovakia is concerned with the critical economic and political situation in some parts of Africa, which could, should they become even worse, lead to new conflicts. “In this context, we are very unsettled regarding the situation in Zimbabwe”. In his opinion, reacting to acute humanitarian crises will not suffice. It was in this regard that he mentioned the workshop devoted to the Security Sector Reform issue which Slovakia is preparing in association with the Republic of South Africa. The workshop is set to be held in Cape Town from the 7th to 8th of November 2007.

Gašparovič emphasised the need to move “from a culture of reaction to a culture of prevention” when addressing Africa’s security problems and pointed out the necessity to settle past grievances. “Slovakia fully supports combating impunity and in particular the role of the International Criminal Tribunal.”

The President’s programme in New York also included several bilateral meetings. The Slovak President met with the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-Moon, who noted the favourable credit of Slovak diplomats in the UN and Slovakia’s greatly appreciated almost two-year membership of the UN Security Council.

According to the Secretary-General, Slovak diplomats in the UN “have earned themselves a good name” and he would also like to utilise their experience in the work of new UN committees. President Ivan Gašparovič held talks with Srgjan Kerim, the President of the 62nd session of the UN General Assembly, who said that, quote: “Slovakia is a very respectable member of the UN and therefore I consider cooperation with Slovakia important.”

The two officials also discussed the issue of the Serbian province of Kosovo, with regards to which Ivan Gašparovič stated that Kosovo was one of the most serious problems the UN Security Council would have to decide on in the near future.

The programme of Ivan Gašparovič’s visit to US also involved bilateral talks with Serbian President Boris Tadič and the Prime Minister of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Nguyen Tan Dung. At the end of his UN visit, Ivan Gašparovič signed the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities and the International Convention on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced or Involuntary Disappearance.