UN Secretary General Kofi Annan concluded a three-day visit to Slovakia July 16. It was the first visit that a head of the UN has paid to Bratislava since the establishment of the independent Slovakia in 1993.
Slovak Prime Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda called the visit a sign that Slovakia is developing in the right direction. He stressed, however, that Annan's trip should not give any false hope to Slovakia's ambitions to be one of the non-permanent members of the UN Security Council.