Czech Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus at the Heritage Foundation, November 12, 1997:
Q: How beneficial is NATO expansion to the security of Europe if it leaves out Slovakia with all its problems?
Klaus: NATO has never covered all of Europe geographically. To assume now that there must be full coverage is not necessarily the way to look at things. I wouldn't demonize the situation in Slovakia. They are driving somewhere, trying to do their best. I consider the absolutely negative descriptions which are fashionable in some media to be exaggerated. [Slovakia is in] a difficult situation with a divided parliament, and the animosity between the president and the prime minister. If I compare Slovakia to its neighbors, it is very comparable.
