Slovak President Peter Pellegrini pledged sweeping cooperation with China during an interview with China Media Group on Wednesday, announcing plans for major industrial investments and expanded student exchanges after talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
During his state visit from Monday to Wednesday, Pellegrini met Xi in Beijing and called their talks "inspiring and forward-looking." He highlighted mutual trust and direct exchanges as the basis of lasting ties, and praised China's focus on practical cooperation.
"I could feel the atmosphere during the meeting. Mr. President, was very open, very friendly, really discussed a lot of things in a very interesting way. And I'm really thankful that he mentioned some areas where we should focus in the future, first of all to build on trust, of course, the connection between people because first for good relationships, you need to have trust. And then second, of course, to cooperate more in our trade and innovation, education, new technologies, transportation, logistics and those kind of things. And now we can say that our relationships are really now at the highest level in this moment," said the president.
Turning diplomatic goodwill into concrete economic results, Pellegrini confirmed that Chinese giants Gotion High-Tech and Geely/Volvo will set up large-scale operations in Slovakia. He vowed to foster a business climate welcoming to foreign capital, pledging government support to draw further investment.
"We are really happy that we can invite to Slovakia two big important companies, and other projects or other companies or other investments are in pipeline. I have to guarantee that the Slovak government will be very constructive, very cooperative to really create such conditions that also others will come and will invest in Slovakia," he said.
Beyond industry, Pellegrini cast education and youth ties as pillars of the partnership. He urged more student exchanges and joint university programs to anchor long-term cooperation.
"But other concrete steps I would like to mention is that shortly after my visit, the minister of education will come with the representatives of Slovak universities, because I believe, and that was also mentioned by Mr. President, that we have to start with the young generation. That means, I think exchange of students, maybe joint programs of our universities, Chinese and Slovaks will increase the number of students which are coming to study at universities in China and the amount of Chinese students coming to Slovakia, because also in these times of new technologies I still believe that education, and good education is the answer for this new era," said the president.
Slovak president pledges deeper cooperation with China, more youth exchanges
