The Czech Republic had to overcome a four-year unsuccessful effort for an independent breakthrough to the European Union in order to become aware of its central European origins and the advantage of a common approach of the weaker to the stronger at the end of 1998. We speak about this comeback with Jan Kavan, Czech Minister of Foreign Affairs.

After the indifferent approach of the Czech Government and especially of Vaclav Klaus to the V-4, which lasted several years, Czech President Vaclav Havel initiated a revival of relations between the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia at the end of 1998. Does the current Czech government support this initiative of President Havel?

I would like to mention that the Visegrad cooperation has had a clear significant for all member states since its very beginning. Besides other things, it helped to present a positive picture of post-communist central Europe to the democratic world. The member states showed their abilities to develop peacefully and their will to cooperate in a period of time, in which the world was afraid that the regained political freedom in this sensitive part of Europe might lead to similar tensions and conflicts by which the Balkan was threatened at that time. Activities of the then Visegrad Three were on gradual decline and their freezing basically culminated by the split of the Czechoslovak Federative Republic (ČSFR). Criticising Visegrad, which was registered at that time in the Czech Republic, was addressed above all to its alleged inefficiency, empty declarative character and concerns of its possible influence as a inadequate alternative of our orientation towards the EU.

In a situation in which the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary have already managed to reach the same level on their way to the EU and NATO and in which Slovakia found itself out of the first group of candidates for some time, former Visegrad cooperation started to be praised and voices pointing to possible usefulness of a new version of Visegrad in its V-4 form appeared. An important impulse in this direction were, besides the initiative of President Havel, also the activities of the new Czech government. I can with responsibility say that the current Czech government fully supports the revival of cooperation between the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia.

Minister, could you explain the reasons why it is just the Czech President who supports the revival and close cooperation within V-4 and why does this revival take place in this period? Do you think that the revival of the V-4 spirit was caused by political changes in Slovakia or by slowing down of the Czech, Polish, Hungarian and Slovak integration to the EU?

As I have already suggested, the cooperation between the V-4 countries has been revived in the latter half of 1998 besides other things, also as a result of post-electoral changes in some states of this group. It was the result of Slovak general election, which was a significant impulse to reviving the idea of Visegrad and its filling with a new content. Another substantial factor is the need to intensify the communication at all levels as far as the preparation for the membership in the Union is concerned. The first wave states got to such a stage of discussions with the EU, in which the group interest seem to be more and more important. Thus, coordinating the common approach leads to a stronger position during the negotiations. I am convinced that the Visegrad cooperation could to a great extent contribute to integrating Slovakia to European and Euro-Atlantic structures. In this regard, I would like to emphasise that we are ready to share our experience from the negotiation processes with Slovakia.

What should be the core of the new, or of the renewed regional cooperation? Do you think that after the Czech republic, Hungary and Poland join NATO, the stability and safety in central Europe should remain crucial issues?

The content of the new Visegrad cooperation is to be discussed in more detail earlier in May at a session of V-4 premiers due to take place in Bratislava. Currently, individual states of the group are preparing proposals for implementing the cooperation. The Czech Republic is ready to cooperate with its partners in all fields of common interest, to develop contacts at all levels of state administration and self-administration. Although it will be possible to use this cooperation also for mutual opinion exchange in foreign and safety policy, close cooperation in the fields of internal safety, struggle against organised crime, migration, protection of state borders and other fields connected to fulfilling the Schengen requests can be an even more significant aspect.

In my opinion, a very important aspect of Visegrad is the development of the cooperation in the culture, education, sports and the work with the youth. Civic initiatives could have a stronger support, too. Surely, economy is also significant. However, in this field, the cooperation between the V-4 member states should not compete with that taking place within CEFTA. On the other hand, number of smaller projects of economic cooperation on the level of regional groups, as territorial self-administrative units and economic chambers could be put into force.

How does in this regard the Czech Republic define its policy towards Ukraine and Russia?

The Czech Republic lays emphasis on positive, partners-like relations with the Russian Federation and is interested in making them more dynamic. Our accession to NATO creates suitable conditions for a definitive emancipation of the Czech policy towards Russia. The unprecedented level of providing for our safety interests will open space for our active cooperation with Russia. The Czech Republic wants to pay attention to developing a mutually advantageous cooperation. As far as safety is concerned, the Czech Republic is going to build on the Appointing Act between NATO and the Russian Federation. The Czech Republic considers involving of Russia into the European safety architecture to be an inevitable condition of reaching stability in Europe. We are going to try to expand the mutually advantageous economic cooperation and build on contacts which had been formed in the past.

To conclude, could you make a detailed comment on priorities of Czech foreign policy towards its partners in V-4?

The Czech Republic puts a special accent on a universal development of relations with Slovakia and tries to make them reach a special "above-standard" level. We take into consideration the fact that the Czech Republic shared the fate with Slovakia in a common state for nearly 70 years and that there are links formed between Czechs and Slovaks which do not have any analogy in the Czech relations to other states. As I have already mentioned, the Czech Republic supports the aspirations of Slovakia to join the European and Euro-Atlantic structures as soon as possible.

Poland is the second largest neighbour of the Czech Republic. Mutual relations have undergone a long-lasting positive development and recently they have improved even further. They are based not only on common history, but also on common interests. Joint accession to NATO and later to the EU creates conditions for further universal deepening of the Czech-Polish relations.

Although Hungary is not a direct member of the Czech Republic, their shared history, tradition and the level of bilateral relations enables both states to have neighbours-like relations. We are linked to Hungary by our common interests, development of bilateral, multilateral and regional cooperation.

By Róbert Matejovič

Slovak Trade FORUM