Slovenia and Poland enjoy an established friendship that developed
before the international recognition of Slovenia, in a period that saw
both countries working towards the victory of democracy, human rights,
respect for diversity, solidarity, peace and freedom in Europe. The
two countries are today united by their common foreign policy
objectives, especially EU membership, cooperation in security
structures and regional cooperation in CEFTA, the Central European
Initiative and the annual meeting of Central European
presidents. Mutual cooperation, exchanging of opinions and support
unites the countries' efforts to join the European Union. Since 1999
Poland has been a NATO member and strongly supports Slovenia's
membership of the alliance.
The countries enjoy well-developed dialogue at the highest
level. The President of the Republic Milan Kucan has visited Poland
three times over his two terms in office, while the President of
Poland Aleksander Kwasniewski has visited Slovenia on two
occasions. Prime Minister Drnovsek visited Poland in 1999 accompanied
by a large business delegation, while the Polish prime minister Leszek
Miller has visited Slovenia twice - the first time on coming to office
in 1998 and the second time in March of this year. Regular contact
takes place between foreign ministries and inter-parliamentary
cooperation is also well developed.
After establishing diplomatic relations, Slovenia and Poland signed
all major agreements creating an excellent basis for cooperation at
various areas. Agreements have been signed on the succession of
agreements between Poland and the former Yugoslavia as well as
agreements on economic cooperation, the reciprocal promotion and
protection of investments, defence cooperation, a culture and
education agreement and a convention on the avoidance of double
taxation.
Poland is an important economic partner for Slovenia. Trade between
the two countries shows promising growth. In 2001 it totalled USD 386
million, of which USD 242 million were Slovenian exports and USD 144
million were Slovenian imports. In comparison with 2000 exports were
up by 7 percent and imports by 4.5 percent. Slovenia has had a
constant trade surplus with Poland - in 2001 it totalled USD 98
million. The Polish market is gaining in importance for Slovenian
companies which are increasing their investments there every year. In
1997 Slovenian direct investment in Poland was worth USD 4 million. At
the end of 2000 that had increased to over USD 55 million, ranking
Poland as the fifth highest recipient of Slovenian investments, the
most important of which are in the pharmaceutical industry. More than
20 Slovenian companies are currently registered in Poland. The Port of
Koper has a special role in the strengthening of economic
relations. The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Slovenia is
successfully cooperating with the Polish Chamber of Commerce. A number
of presentations have been organised in Slovenia and in various
regions of Poland - Katowice, Cracow, Warsaw and Poznan.
In recent years there has been a noticeable increase in Polish
tourists visiting Slovenia. In 2001 there was a 23 percent increase in
the number of Polish visitors.
Cooperation in the spheres of education, culture and science stems
from an umbrella agreement from 1994 and several cooperation
programmes. It largely takes place in the form of direct cooperation
between cultural institutions and the hosting of music and theatre
groups. In the field of education, inter-university cooperation is
very well developed with reciprocal lectureships in the Slovene
language in three Polish universities (at the Jagiellonian University
in Cracow, the University of Warsaw and the Silesian University in
Katowice) and in the Polish language at the Arts Faculty of the
University of Ljubljana. Slovenian students and professors have
participated in courses in Polish at Polish universities, while there
have been Polish participants in the annual Slovene language seminars
organised by the Arts Faculty of the University of Ljubljana.
Cooperation in the sphere of science and technology takes place on
the basis of the agreement on scientific and technological cooperation
signed in 1996. Cooperation has also developed between the Slovenian
Academy of Sciences and Arts and the Polish Academy of Science in
Warsaw and the Polish Academy of Arts and Science in Cracow as well as
between research institutes and other scientific organisations in both
countries.
GOVERNMENT PUBLIC RELATIONS AND MEDIA OFFICE © 2002
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