President of the Slovak Republic Received Prime Minister of the Republic Of Croatia Ivo Sanader

President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gašparovič received Prime Minister of the Republic of Croatia Ivo Sanader.

The partners emphasized the high quality of the relations between the two countries, whereby the Croatian Prime Minister pointed out that “even if we wanted, we could not find a negative aspect of our relations.” The topics of the talk included mainly the integration issues.

The Slovak President perceives the position of Croatia as a future member of the NATO and the EU without any doubts, which he confirmed also in his address delivered at the recent summit of Central European heads of state in Varna, Bulgaria. The Croatian Prime Minister thanked him for this support also at this meeting in Bratislava.

Then the partners discussed also the hot topic of the referendum in Montenegro. In this connection, Ivo Sander appreciated the work of Slovak diplomats, and highlighted the need to respect the decision of the Montenegro citizens, and accept the new European state. President Ivan Gašparovič expressed his conviction that the EU should have waited with the suspension of negotiations with Serbia until the referendum. Then the result of the referendum could have been influenced also by this move of the EU. The President of the Slovak Republic said that the majority of the 25-EU member states agree on the support for the Croatian membership in the EU, and the Union cannot afford to postpone the term of accepting Bulgaria and Romania, while the Slovak party supports the integration of these countries into the EU.

In the context of integration themes, the Croatian Prime Minister asked the Slovak President to support the efforts of Croatia to join NATO at the November summit in Riga, Latvia. The partners also talked about the issue of Serbia, stating that following the Montenegro referendum results, there is a chance for Serbia to set up a new modern European future for itself. Both, Slovakia and Croatia are determined to do everything needed to prevent Serbia from destabilization.

The Croatian Prime Minister expressed his disagreement with suspension of association talks, which in his opinion is playing into the hands of radical Serbian forces. The Croatian party is in favour of starting the EU negotiations also with Montenegro which is also a succession state of Serbia and Montenegro. President Ivan Gašparovič remarked that in the existing situation it would be needed to very sensitively look for a peaceful dividing the property of the common state of Serbia and Montenegro. A different opinion of the partners was mentioned with reference to Kosovo, as Montenegro became a member of Yugoslavia as an independent state, while Kosovo has always been a part of Serbia. The President of the Slovak Republic believes that Kosovo must remain a multiethnic country, rather than an ethnically pure state.

During the talks, Premier Sanader asked President Ivan Gašparovič to support a differentiated approach of the EU to the integration of Croatia and Turkey, as the Croatian party does not want to fall under conditions of terms given to Turkey, and wishes to separate the association talks of Croatia and Turkey as soon as possible.