President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gašparovič received in the Presidential Palace President of the United Mexican States Vincente Fox Quesada.

The Slovak President said that he was more than pleased to welcome the Mexican counterpart as this was the first visit ever of a Mexican President to the Slovak Republic. Their talks concerned mainly the mutual cooperation of Slovakia and Mexico. They talked especially about possibilities to develop the economic cooperation. Ivan Gašparovič believes that the two countries should not develop goods transactions only as there are favourable preconditions to succeed in cooperating in the field of power industry and tourism as well.

Then the Presidents talked about a proposal to establish a Slovak-Mexican Commission the purpose of which would be to seek and propose specific forms of cooperation. Mexico takes interest in the Slovak Republic because of its mechanical, electro-technical, chemical and glass industries, and to a large extent tourism. The Mexican guests spoke highly of introducing the flat tax in Slovakia, which is, as they said, an important impulse for the development of industry and economy.

The President of Mexico remarked that there is a similar task ahead of Mexico. He appreciated the fact that Slovakia has already invested in Mexico. Now it is Mexico’s turn to identify possibilities and areas where Mexico could invest in Slovakia. Ivan Gašparovič presented a proposal related to the areas of education and research, namely to extend the possibilities of scholarships. The Presidents spoke also about possibilities of cultural exchanges. The Slovak President asked about the international cultural festival Cervantino which is annually held in the city of Guanajuato.

 He expressed his wish that Slovak ensembles, too, could participate in this most prestigious cultural festival of South America. Then the Presidents talked about the current political situation and relations of the countries of South America. They paid a lot of attention to the relations with the European Union. Europe could help Latin America in integrating and unifying the Latin American countries. According to Vincente Fox, the three-day summit of the leaders of the European Union, Latin America and the Carribean held in Vienna turned to be very useful and inspiring not only to Mexico but also some other Latin American countries that may draw from the experience of European nations on their way to unification.

The Slovak President was interested very much also in the opinion of Vincente Fox of the situation in Bolivia and Venezuela. At the end of the talks, the Mexican President expressed his hope that this meeting would strengthen and improve relations so that all those intentions mentioned during the meeting could come true.