PICULA ENDS VISIT TO SLOVAKIA

BRATISLAVA, March 1 (Hina) - Croatian Foreign Minister Tonino Picula on Friday ended his two-day visit to Slovakia with talks with Slovak President Rudolf Schuster and parliament's deputy speaker Marjan Andel. Ahead of his return to Zagreb, Picula told reporters he was satisfied with what had been achieved in Bratislava and assessed the gates for a wider bilateral and multilateral cooperation had been opened. In talks with Schuster and Slovak parliamentarians Picula advocated a faster passing of laws on the protection of national minorities, and suggested stronger cooperation between the two countries' parliamentary committees for European associations. The focal event of Picula's visit to Bratislava was a 90-minute meeting with his counterpart and host, Eduard Kukan, held this morning, after which both expressed satisfaction with the two countries' political relations and good development of economic cooperation. On his first day of visiting Bratislava, Picula held talks with Slovak Prime Minister Mikulas Dzurinda, visited Slovak Croats near Bratislava and held a lecture at the Slovak Foreign Affairs Society, dedicated to Croatia's role in the security architecture of Europe's Southeast. (hina) lml sb