Slovakia–United States relations

Slovakia – United States relations

Slovakia	United States

Slovakia – United States relations are bilateral relations between Slovakia and the United States.

According to the 2012 U.S. Global Leadership Report, 27% of Slovaks approve of U.S. leadership, with 32% disapproving and 41% uncertain.^[1]

History

President George W. Bush and Slovak President Ivan Gasparovic meet at the White House in October 2008.

The fall of the communist regime in Czechoslovakia in 1989 and the subsequent split of the two republics on January 1, 1993, allowed for renewed cooperation between the United States and Slovakia. The election of a pro-Western, reformist government in late 1998 further boosted close ties between the countries. The United States delivered more than $200 million after 1990 to support the rebuilding of a healthy democracy and market economy in Slovakia, primarily through programs administered by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Slovakia and the United States retain strong diplomatic ties and cooperate in the military and law enforcement areas. The U.S. Department of Defense programs have contributed significantly to Slovak military reforms.

Hundreds of thousands of Americans have their roots in Slovakia, and many retain strong cultural and familial ties to the Slovak Republic. President Woodrow Wilson and the United States played a major role in the establishment of the original Czechoslovak state on October 28, 1918, and President Wilson's Fourteen Points were the basis for the union of the Czechs and Slovaks. Tomas Masaryk, the father of the Czechoslovak state and its first president, visited the United States during World War I and used the U.S. Constitution as a model for the first Czechoslovak Constitution.

Principal U.S. Embassy Officials include:

• Charge D' Affaires—Keith Eddins
• Political/Economic Chief—Susan Ball
• Economic Officer—William Taliaferro
• Commercial Officer—David Ponsar
• Consular Officer—Simon Hankinson
• Management Officer—Tess Moore
• Public Affairs Officer—Chris Scharf
• General Services Officer—Andrew P. Hogenboom
• Defense Attaché—LTC Matthew Atkins
• Office of Defense Cooperation—LTC John DuMond

The U.S. maintains an embassy in Bratislava, Slovakia.

See also

• Slovak Americans
• Foreign relations of Slovakia
• Foreign relations of the United States
• http://slovakia.usembassy.gov/index.html

References

1. U.S. Global Leadership Project Report - 2012 Gallup

 This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the United States Department of State (Background Notes).

External links

• History of Slovakia - U.S. relations

Media related to Slovakia – United States relations at Wikimedia Commons