President Klaus visits Slovakia

Bratislava, Feb 26 (CTK) - The split of the former Czechoslovakia 20 years ago has helped both successor countries, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, President Vaclav Klaus said during his last official visit to Bratislava yesterday.

"I believe the split has been good for both countries. Maybe it has been better for Slovakia," he said after meeting Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic.

Klaus has been head of the Czech state since 2003. His presidential mandate will expire next week, on March 7.

Gasparovic said he believes the relations between Czechs and Slovaks would not be as good as they are now if the joint state had been preserved.

"The relations were not always equal then. Now they are," Gasparovic said.

Until 1993, the Slovaks have never had their own independent state.

Klaus was one of the two key architects of the division of the former Czechoslovakia in two parts. Klaus, then Czech prime minister, negotiated with his Slovak counterpart Vladimir Meciar about the conditions of the peaceful separation in 1992.

Gasparovic pointed to the growing trade exchange between Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

"All of this is connected with not having fully separated," Gasparovic said.

"Now we were able to create the paths we failed to create during the existence of the joint state," he added.

"It does not matter whether we are called the Czech Republic-Slovakia or whether we are the Czech Republic and Slovakia if the relations work and are good," Gasparovic said.

Klaus said he did not expect the Bratislava-Prague relations to change after he was succeeded by Milos Zeman next week.

After the afternoon meeting and joint lunch with chairman of the Slovak parliament Pavol Paska, Klaus and his wife Livia Klausova attended the opening of an exhibition on the 20th anniversary of the independent Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The exhibition staged by Czech and Slovak cultural institutions presents photographs depicting major events in the streets of the towns of the two former parts of Czechoslovakia since the fall of the Communist regime in 1989.

"I have the feeling that people do not take to the squares if things go well. When they do, they go and protest," Klaus said.

Klaus's official visit to Slovakia ends on Wednesday when he will be given a prize for the improvement of the business environment from the association of Slovak entrepreneurs.