The Speaker of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, Peter Pellegrini, expressed his country’s support to the efforts for a peaceful resolution of the Cyprus issue.
Pellegrini met today with the President of the House of Representatives, Annita Demetriou to whom he expressed his appreciation for ‘the opportunity to meet at a time that is very important for Cyprus in terms of the future development of the negotiations for the Cyprus problem, which were suspended almost seven years ago.’
In statements to the press after the meeting he stressed that ‘Slovakia will always stand on your side and we will do our maximum to solve this problem peacefully’.
Pellegrini also noted that both he and Demetriou agreed ‘that the parliamentary diplomacy is really an important dimension of further development’ of the bilateral relations between Cyprus and Slovakia, which go back more than 30 years, as he said. ‘More than 30 years of diplomatic relations between Slovakia and Cyprus confirm really the high quality of ou
r relations in all areas of common interest,’ he noted.
‘Slovakia is ready to continue contributing significantly to UNFICYP and our soldiers demonstrated in the last years and, also, in the last months high professionalism and dedication to the service of peace since 2001 in Cyprus,’ said Pellegrini, who is visiting Cyprus to attend the events to mark the 60th anniversary of the establishment of UNFICYP.
He also reaffirmed that Slovak soldiers will stay in Cyprus as long as needed, and said that this is his country’s biggest mission abroad. ‘Slovakia is one of the biggest members with 150 soldiers serving here’ he explained.
The Slovak official said that during his meeting with the House President they discussed a wide range of bilateral and international issues and he particularly mentioned the conflict in the eastern part of Europe, involving Russia and Ukraine, and the war in Gaza, which is not far from Cyprus as he said, and has had resulted to starvation and consequences on children and women, he not
ed.
The House President in her statements noted that it means a lot to hear her counterpart express Slovakia’s support also noting that Pellegrini’s visit ‘coincides with a historic occasion marking the 50 years of Turkish invasion and ongoing occupation’.
She also acknowledged Slovakia’s contribution to the bicommunal dialogue and noted that both sides ‘recognize the necessity for peace to be established,’ both in Cyprus and in the region.
‘That is why we are so grateful for your support about continuing the dialogue and negotiations from where they have stopped in the agreed framework, which is the bizonal bicommunal federation,’ Demetriou said.
‘In collaboration we can confront any small or great challenges and it is a time that we only need to support peace and prosperity and stability,’ she also said
Responding to a journalist’s question about the challenges in the EU, especially regarding the upcoming elections in June, Annita Demetriou listed various challenges that had been discussed in the meeti
ng, such as the migration issue, the economic crisis, the energy crisis, the environmental crisis. ‘For all these the answer is clear, we need more solidarity and more compliance to our principles,’ she pointed out
‘I think it is about time to show to people – this is what we discussed as well – that we do have a plan, we do have a strategy and an answer to give to our people,’ she further said. Concluding, the House President underlined that ‘we do not want the extremist to gain either position, so we need to answer with more democracy and more compliance to what we believe and represent.’
On his part, Pellegrini said that the positive aspects of the 20 years since the accession in the EU need to be highlighted. ‘We have to use this opportunity to speak about the successful story of the last 20 years of the development of Slovakia, thanks to the accession to the EU,’ he said. He noted that Slovakia’s citizens support to the EU is decreasing. ‘We would like to use this anniversary to speak about the positiv
es,’ he added.
He further said that the EU has not been able to communicate to the citizens ‘that it is able to protect them, to protect the external borders,’ and he particularly spoke of the impact of migration flows in Europe.
Pellegrini also referred to the protests and demonstrations of farmers saying that ‘the EU leaders must send a strong message to the EU citizens that we continue to make the EU great again.’
He finally said that the European elections are crucial and spoke of the possibility of ‘extremist parties’ potentially growing stronger and entering the European Parliament. Pellegrini said that the presence of ‘strong extremist parties’ would ‘not be good for the future of the EU.’
Source: Cyprus News Agency
