Premier: Slovakia Fully Supports Turkey's Membership of European Union

Ankara, January 20 (TASR-correspondent) - Slovakia fully supports Turkey's membership of the European Union; it is willing to provide its experience from the accession processes, Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said on Monday at a joint press conference with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inviting him to visit Slovakia. Fico praised the fact that Slovak and Turkish partners are getting closer to the mutual trade reaching the level of €5 billion a year. "We note, Mr. President, that Turkey continues to show its ambition to become a full member of the European Union. I've offered and continue to offer all our experience from the difficult pre-accession negotiations before 2004, but above all we offer our experience from the huge mistakes we made in 2004 or in the preceding years," said Fico, stressing the importance of Slovakia's membership of the European Union and NATO. The Turkish president highlighted the relations between Slovakia and Turkey, expressing the hope that the signed documents on cooperation in various areas such as culture, the army and the economy will further strengthen them. Fico sees room for cooperation between the countries, for example, in nuclear energy, water management or the automotive industry. am/mcs