Presidents: Czech-Slovak Ties Shouldn't Be Guided by Emotions

Prague/Bratislava, March 5 (TASR-correspondent) - Slovak President Peter Pellegrini concurred with his Czech counterpart Petr Pavel that ties between the two countries shouldn't be guided by emotions and politics too much, with Pellegrini underlining that political quarrels make up only brief episodes in the lives of the two nations, TASR learnt from its special correspondent in the Czech Republic. The two presidents met for talks in the Slavkov Castle near Brno on Wednesday. Pellegrini asked Pavel to intervene in what Pellegrini sees as the painting of a negative picture of Slovakia in the Czech media. "I'm quite saddened to see how far these problems or slump in our otherwise longstanding friendly ties have gone... I'd like to ask inhabitants of the Czech Republic and Slovakia not to let themselves get influenced by any political developments. That's because any government, whether in the Czech Republic or Slovakia, poses only a brief episode in the lives of our nations and the situation will change with every election," said Pellegrini, noting that the situation might change even after the upcoming parliamentary election in the Czech Republic and if that happens, ties will start to look different then. Pellegrini added that he discussed with Pavel also the negative image of Slovakia in the Czech media and asked him for an intervention. "We perceive that Slovakia today is often portrayed in a truly negative fashion, whether it is in the Czech media, on various talk shows, some magazine covers, in discussions hosted by public media or in various influencer posts and stand-up comedy performances, which doesn't happen in Slovakia. Because of this, I firmly hope that we will manage to return back to mutual respect and good ties," he said. Pavel underlined that relations between the Czech Republic and Slovakia exist at many levels, for instance, between individuals, businesses and education institutions and those shouldn't be influenced by political opinions. "We both concurred that ties between the countries shouldn't be adversely affected by the differences of opinions on some specific issues of foreign and security policies because these tools are not the only factor defining relations between the two countries," said the Czech head of state. mf