中文
Joint Statement between the People's Republic of China and the Slovak Republic on the Establishment of a Strategic Partnership
(NOVEMBER 1, 2024)
From 31st October to 5th November, 2024, Robert Fico, Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic, paid an official visit to the People's Republic of China. During the visit, Prime Minister Robert Fico met with President Xi Jinping, held talks with Premier Li Qiang, and met with Chairman of the Standing Committee of the National People's Congress Zhao Leji.
China and Slovakia (hereinafter referred to as the “Participants”) had in-depth exchange of views and reached broad consensus on their bilateral relations and exchanged views on international and regional issues of mutual interest. The participants decided to establish a Chinese-Slovak strategic partnership.
The participants accept that they do not have any significant open questions or unresolved issues between them. Friendship and cooperation have always been the mainstream of the bilateral relations and are in line with the common and long-term interests of the two peoples. China and Slovakia have always been committed to the principles of mutual respect, equality, mutual benefit, and win-win cooperation, actively promoted high-level exchanges and mutually beneficial cooperation in various fields.
This year, China and Slovakia commemorate 75 years since the establishment of diplomatic relations. China and Slovakia, a successor state of former Czechoslovakia, are ready to take the anniversary of their diplomatic relations as an opportunity to carry forward traditional friendship, deepen political mutual trust, balanced and reciprocal relations, expand exchanges and cooperation in all fields and at all levels, and bring bilateral relations to a higher level.
1. Political Domain
1.1. The participants recognize the importance of maintaining balanced and reciprocal relations, its continuity and consistency based on bilateral and the China-EU relations.
1.2. The participants are committed to strengthening high-level exchanges, and promoting exchanges and mutual visits between the governments, legislative bodies, localities, political parties of the two countries, as well as on the non-governmental and people-to-people basis, so that they will stay in close communication and step-up dialogue and cooperation on bilateral relations and other issues of common interest.
1.3. In order to develop and deepen the strategic partnership between the two countries, the participants will establish an inter-governmental strategic dialogue mechanism to make plans for the future development of bilateral relations. To this end, the participants decide to establish an intergovernmental cooperation committee between the People’s Republic of China and the Slovak Republic (at the level of Foreign Minister or Vice Foreign Minister). According to the arrangement between the two sides, committee meetings will be held alternately in China and Slovakia at flexible intervals.
1.4. The participants reaffirmed their commitment to respecting each other's sovereignty and territorial integrity. Slovakia reaffirmed its firm commitment to the one-China policy, that there is but one China in the world, and that the Government of the People's Republic of China is the sole legal government representing the whole of China. Slovakia opposes any attempts to interfere in China's internal affairs, sovereignty and territorial integrity, including Taiwan.
1.5. The participants will advocate humanity’s common values of peace, development, equity, justice, democracy, and freedom, respect, protect and promote the human rights and basic freedoms of all people, and respect the independent choices made by the people of each country on the paths for the development of democracy and social and political systems that suit their national conditions, in accordance with the Charter of the United Nations.
The participants firmly oppose the politicization and instrumentalization of human rights issues, and firmly oppose any country interfering in the internal affairs of other countries in the name of democracy and human rights.
1.6. The participants agree to build the bilateral agenda in coordination and based on the objectives set by the China-EU 2020 Strategic Agenda for Cooperation.
The participants recognize that China and the European Union (EU) are both important players on the international stage and are important partners in addressing global challenges. The participants will continue deepening the China-EU comprehensive strategic partnership, acknowledging the complementarity of the Chinese-Slovak strategic partnership to it. The participants support promoting China-EU dialogue, exchanges and cooperation in various fields, and search possibilities of interaction between the Belt and Road Initiative and the EU's Global Gateway.
2. Economic Domain
2.1. The participants welcome the steady growth of bilateral trade in recent years and are ready to further improve the trade structure, enrich the variety of products, expand trade, and promote balanced development of trade. China welcomes Slovakia's active participation in trade promotion platforms such as the China International Import Expo and supports more high-quality Slovak agricultural and food products in entering the Chinese market.
2.2. The participants are ready to further deepen economic, trade and investment cooperation, and work to widen market access for each other’s products, and provide an open, fair, just and non-discriminatory business environment for enterprises of the two sides.
China appreciates Slovakia's active engagement in investment platforms like the China International Fair for Investment and Trade. Furthermore, Slovakia welcomes investments and operations from Chinese companies within its borders. China's support for Slovak investments and joint ventures in China is further boosting economic cooperation between the two nations.
2.3. The participants stress the importance of the Joint Economic Committee and the Science and Technology Cooperation Committee as platforms for promoting cooperation on trade, innovation and research and development, and are ready to further strengthen policy dialogue in the fields of economy, trade and science and human-centric technology development and deployment, and provide support for cooperation between enterprises, chambers of commerce and industry associations of the two countries.
2.4. The participants will strengthen cooperation on green development in such fields as new materials, new infrastructure, clean energy, and sustainable development. The participants are ready to extensively explore and cultivate cooperation opportunities in green technology, recycling, waste treatment and other such fields. The participants are ready to strengthen exchanges on CO₂ emission reduction technologies and work together on the diversification of energy resource supply, thereby enhancing energy security and promoting the transition to sustainable low-carbon energy sources such as solar, vehicles, geothermal and wind power. The governments, research institutions, universities, private enterprises of the two countries will actively participate in the above-mentioned cooperation.
2.5. The participants are ready to make full use of various economic and trade cooperation mechanisms and capacity-building projects to strengthen exchanges and cooperation on standards and conformity assessment, promote mutual recognition of standards and certification results of foreign trade products, improve conformity assessment procedures for import and export processes, and avoid repeated inspection and testing. In doing so, trade facilitation and liberalization will be continuously enhanced with costs lowered for both sides.
2.6. Slovakia supports and will actively participate in the Belt and Road Initiative. Slovakia is ready to actively participate in cooperation on China-Europe Railway Express, improve transportation infrastructure, and facilitate the entry of Chinese companies and goods into the European market through Slovakia.
2.7. The participants accept that cooperation between China and Central and Eastern European countries (CEEC) is a useful complement to China-EU relations and China-Slovakia bilateral relations and are ready to jointly work for new progress in China-CEEC cooperation. China supports Slovakia in hosting the Sixth China-CEEC Innovation Cooperation Conference in Slovakia and playing a more important role within the mechanism.
3. People-to-People and Cultural Domain
3.1. The participants are ready to continue to strengthen exchanges and cooperation in such fields as culture, education, scientific research, sports, academia, think tanks, film and television, media, tourism, security and law enforcement.
3.2. The participants are ready to strengthen cooperation in the cultural industry, support exchanges and mutual visits between artists and art groups of the two countries, support the hosting of art projects and exhibitions in each other’s countries, and encourage the translation, distribution, and promotion of each other’s literary works.
3.3. The participants attach great importance to education and exchanges on language and culture, encourage schools from both sides to carry out Chinese and Slovak language teaching, strengthen language teacher exchanges, support young people in studying in each other’s countries, and promote friendly exchanges between the youth of the two countries. Slovakia will promote Chinese studies and cultural activities, for example within the Confucius Institutes in Slovakia.
3.4. The important tool for promoting culture and education between official institutions of China and Slovakia is Cooperation Program in the area of Culture and Cooperation Program in the area of Education.
3.5. The participants are ready to strengthen the existing cooperative partnership between the two countries' academies of sciences and other national-level scientific research institutions, promote cooperation and joint scientific research projects between research institutions in materials science, information technology, biomedicine, health care, environmental science, social science, and other related fields, and strengthen academic exchanges in accordance with national R&D priorities.
3.6. The participants are ready to deepen subnational exchanges and cooperation, promote the development of sister cities, and support the role of the Sino-Czecho-Slovak Friendship Farm in Cangzhou.
4. International Domain
4.1. The participants advocate practicing multilateralism and upholding the international system with the United Nations (U.N.) at its core, the international order based on international law, and the basic norms governing international relations based on the purposes and principles of the U.N. Charter. Both sides are ready to continue to strengthen cooperation in the U.N. and other international organizations in areas of mutual interest, defend international fairness and justice.
4.2. In accordance with the principles of the U.N. Charter and the agreements of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the participants commit to developing free trade and global economic partnership, upholding the rules-based multilateral trading system in accordance with the WTO Agreements, building an open, transparent, inclusive, and non-discriminatory trade environment, and making economic globalization more open, inclusive, balanced and beneficial to all.
4.3. Slovakia is ready to discuss and exchange the views on Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative and Global Civilization Initiative proposed by China and takes note of Chinese proposal on promoting the building of a community with a shared future for mankind.
4.4. The participants are ready to act on the spirit and principles of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and its Paris Agreement, continue to have candid dialogue and exchanges on issues of common concern such as climate change, biodiversity, health care, and international security, and contribute to the promotion of inclusive growth, sustainable development, social equality and poverty eradication.
