Ambassador of Kazakhstan Roman Vassilenko met today with former President of Slovakia Ivan Gašparovič to present him a congratulatory message from Elbasy – the First President of Kazakhstan Nursultan Nazarbayev on his anniversary, Delovoy Kazakhstan reports.
As Elbasy noted in the message to Gašparovič who recently celebrated his 80th birthday, “Leading Slovakia for many years as the President of a sovereign state, you helped to improve the quality of life of the Slovak people, helped to create conditions for achieving new successes of the country as a full member of the European Union”.
Nazarbayev emphasized the role of Gašparovič, who led Slovakia in 2004–14, in the development of relations between the two countries: “I am grateful to you for your contribution to the development of strong Kazakh-Slovak friendship. I am confident these relations continue to deepen for the benefit of the peoples of Kazakhstan and Slovakia. I fondly remember my visit to Bratislava in November 2007 and your hospitality then, as well as your visits to Kazakhstan in March and December 2010 and our productive negotiations”.
In this context, the Ambassador briefed President Gašparovič, who enjoys great authority not only in Slovakia, but also abroad, with the current state and prospects for the development of Kazakh-Slovak cooperation.
Having sincerely thanked Nazarbayev for his attention and warm words of congratulations, Gašparovič emphasized that in recent years cooperation between Slovakia and Kazakhstan has risen to a new level, but still holds a huge and not yet fully realized potential. In this regard, he welcomed President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev’s decision to open the embassy of Kazakhstan in Bratislava in 2019, having learned with satisfaction about the work being done to strengthen ties across a wide range of relations, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.
The interlocutors highlighted the potential for the mutually beneficial cooperation between Kazakhstan and Slovakia in the fields of innovation, machine building, including the automotive and defense industry, engineering, pharmaceutical industry, IT, and agriculture. Speaking about ways to further strengthen economic cooperation, Gašparovič expressed hope that in 2021, with the resumption of normal international communications, business cooperation receives a new qualitative impulse.
During the meeting, topical issues of international politics were also discussed. Noting the continuing tension at the global level between major players, including the nuclear powers, the parties touched upon the initiative of the First President of Kazakhstan to establish a dialogue between them, as well as to reduce the global nuclear threat posed to humanity. Of particular interest to the Slovak politician was Nazarbayev’s proposal, voiced at the Astana Club in 2019, to create a Global Alliance of Leaders for Nuclear Disarmament and a Nuclear Weapons World Free.
