BRATISLAVA, April 13, (WEBNOVINY)- The first meeting of new Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico and his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban might take place on April 26 in Warsaw that will host a prime ministerial meeting. Fico thinks that it would be good to meet briefly with Orban on that occasion. “In order to begin somehow, to start to normally communicate,” said Fico at a news conference on Friday on the occasion of installing new Foreign Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajcak to the office.
Fico says that as prime minister he will fully concentrate on economic and social issues, i.e. on home topics. He however is prepared to develop activities also regarding foreign policy but he relies mainly on the new minister in this field. “Slovakia wants peace and good relations, this is what I care about more than anytime before,” stated Fico. According to him Slovakia is interested in having good and friendly relations with its neighbors, including Hungary. He underscored that Slovakia has to cope with so many economic and social problems that it would be absolutely counterproductive to create any other topics that would just consume energy.
Lajcak says that we not only want to have good relations with Budapest but will also contribute to achieving this aim with our behavior. He says that relations between the Slovak Republic and Hungary are better that presented in the media, which he finds comprehensible. The MFA underscored that he received the first phone congratulation on his appointment from his Hungarian counterpart Janos Martonyi. He congratulated him and invited the new minister for a visit to Budapest. At this week’s international security conference Globsec in Bratislava Lajcak met with Hungarian MFA State Secretary Zsolt Nemeth.
“The basic philosophy is that were are partners, neighbors, allies, that we have much in common and naturally, there are things on which our opinions differ and we will discuss about these things peacefully, based on arguments, based on European rules and standards,“ said the Slovak minister. Sending messages via the media does not help anybody and such communication is unripe, opines Lajcak. According to him Slovakia and Hungary are both mature countries, EU and NATO members and will behave accordingly.
SITA