Slovakia will continue to actively support the further enlargement of the European Union and NATO, mainly into the Western Balkans, according to the main guidelines of Slovakia's foreign policy for 2011 presented to parliament by Foreign Minister Mikuláš Dzurinda and approved by MPs on Wednesday, March 30.
Slovakia supports concluding EU-accession negotiations with Croatia in the first half of 2011, and beginning talks with Montenegro and Macedonia. "Following a positive opinion from the European Commission in the second half of 2011, we'll also promote granting candidate status to and beginning accession talks with Serbia," reads the document drawn up by the Foreign Affairs Ministry. In addition, Slovakia backs rapid but objective accession negotiations with Iceland and continuing talks with Turkey.
Slovakia will also provide bilateral aid for modernisation and reform measures in countries included within the Eastern Partnership (i.e. Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine). Special attention should be devoted to association agreements and agreements on free trade zones. An onging priority of Slovakia's foreign policy is to ensure the stable delivery of strategic raw materials from Russia to European customers. "We'll support more significant penetration of Slovak products into Russian markets," the ministry said, as quoted by the TASR newswire.
As for Asia, Slovakia will promote bolstering economic and political dialogues with China, Japan, India, South Korea and Indonesia. The most important partners in Latin America are Brazil, Mexico and Argentina.
In terms of tackling the effects of the economic crisis, Slovakia will actively seek to increase economic responsibility within the EU. When it comes to implementation of the Lisbon Treaty, Slovakia will advocate a balance between the interests of large and small EU-member states. In the long term, the Foreign Ministry says, Slovakia is interested in playing host to one of the EU's agencies or institutions.
Source: TASR
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
