Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič Receives Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin

Slovak President Ivan Gašparovič received Prime Minister of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin in the Presidential Palace on 13 May 2011. President Putin arrived in Slovakia upon invitation by the International Ice Hockey Federation, IIHF, to attend the IIHF Congress.

Ivan Gašparovič and Vladimir Putin discussed current international policy issues, cooperation between the Slovak Republic, a NATO member country, and the Russian Federation, as well as issues related to the future of energy supplies from Russia to Slovakia. The Russian Prime Minister assured the Slovak President there was no risk of crisis as far as the delivery of Russian gas and oil supplies was concerned. “Given the fact that a northern line is to be opened and large gas reservoirs in the east will have to be filled up, there might be a little less gas but no crisis,” the Slovak President said.

The Slovak President emphasised that Russia was a strategic partner to the Slovak Republic and the European Union, both in policy and economic issues. The Russian Prime Minister thanked President Gašparovič for the due care with which Slovak people tend the graves and memorials of fallen Soviet soldiers.

Both state officials agreed that cooperation between NATO and Russia was essential in order to resolve the issues of defence and security and to combat terrorism. They also touched upon the most recent developments in Libya and Afghanistan and the liberalisation of the visa regime for Russian citizens travelling to the Schengen area.“This certainly is an acute problem and Slovakia, too, will have to take a clear position on how to address it," the Slovak President said. According to Ivan Gašparovič, every effort has to be made in order to resolve this issue successfully and seek ways to remove technical problems. Moscow has long been requesting Brussels to liberalise the existing visa regime but the European Union makes the visa liberalisation conditional upon progress in the area of transparency, registration of travellers and employment agreements.