Ivan Gašparovič also met with Slovak Americans during his official visit to the US. In Holmdel, New Jersey, he attended the opening ceremony of the 33rd Slovak Heritage Festival.

Hundreds of Slovak expatriates gave a spontaneous welcome to Slovakia’s highest state official, and wanted to greet him, have a chat, and take pictures with him. Ivan Gašparovič was particularly pleased to have the chance to meet the Slovak expats and highly appreciated their efforts to preserve cultural traditions and contacts with Slovakia.

“Many of you who left Slovakia in the last century could only hardly imagine that Slovakia would once be a free and democratic country, that we would have our own sovereign state,” Ivan Gašparovič said. He pointed out that “we were always under someone’s control or with someone” throughout our history but not even the 1300 years of anti-national and assimilation measures could ruin the determined mindset of Slovaks who have preserved their territory, language, culture and religion and, therefore, we are a nation that has earned the world’s respect.

In his address to the expatriates, Ivan Gašparovič expressed the commitment to cooperation and respect, and asked them to help Slovakia, to seek new relationships with their fellow American citizens, and to pursue Slovakia’s interests in their new home country.

The actual number of people of Slovak origin or of Slovak descent living in the US is estimated at some 1.2 million persons, which makes them the largest community of Slovak expatriates in the world.