President Ivan Gašparovič Receives Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip
Ivan Gašparovič, the President of the Slovak Republic, recently received Estonian Prime Minister Andrus Ansip at the Presidential Palace. During their meeting, Gašparovič expressed his belief that Slovakia and Estonia had many things in common and, besides political cooperation, “there is great potential to be tapped in the areas of trade and economic cooperation between both countries where we can seek solutions to overcome the global economic crisis.” According to the Slovak President, the euro changeover played an important role in facing the impacts of the economic crisis. “I firmly believe your effort to join the eurozone in 2011 will be crowned with success,” he said.
“The Slovak Republic serves as a very good example for Estonia, and I am very glad we can discuss many problems today,” Prime Minister Ansip said during the meeting. In his opinion, the global economic crisis considerably hit both countries, but they still managed to top the GDP growth charts within the EU. Ansip said that “Estonia was indeed very well prepared for this crisis because we saved up during good times, and the government debt stands at ten percent.”
He said Estonia had already complied with the Maastricht criteria for eurozone entry last year. “I am convinced that we have complied with all criteria and that we will join the eurozone as of 1 January 2011,” he noted. Mr. Gašparovič expressed his belief that no obstacles should stand in the way for countries which managed to meet all eurozone entry criteria. He also pinpointed the need of closer cooperation between the Visegrad Four (V4) and Baltic Three (B3) groups.
Furthermore, both representatives discussed issues related to the professionalisation of armed forces in their countries. According to Prime Minister Ansip, Estonia seeks a smooth transition to a fully professional army while gradually reducing the number of civilian staff in its armed forces. Both representatives also touched on the cooperation between the Alliance and the EU. “For us, EU-NATO cooperation is very important, as is trans-Atlantic cooperation in security policy issues,” the Estonian Prime Minister said.
