On the occasion of the New Year 's meeting, president Andrej Kiska addressed the members of diplomatic corps accredited in the Slovak Republic:

“I am glad to welcome you all in the Presidential Palace at this traditional event. Already our third together. It is always a great pleasure for me to meet with you and sincerely thank you for all you do for promoting good relations between your countries and Slovakia. In this New Year I wish for friendly and fruitful cooperation to continue in the best spirit of mutual understanding, respect and in the honest desire to improve well-being of our people. 

Before I will make some remarks about the year ahead of us, let me briefly mention one thing. From the point of view of your job — diplomacy — last year was pretty interesting for Slovakia. We made the most ambitious international diplomatic bid in the history of our young country, offering our candidate minister Lajčák for the post of the new UN Secretary General. There was a tremendous work behind it rewarded by a respectable result that would not be possible without the support of many of your countries. We are very thankful for it. In any case I wish all the best to the new Secretary General of the United Nations, Mr. Guterres, who has all necessary to perform greatly in his new position.

In my regular New Year’s Day address to our citizens I said something to the effect of  2017 being a year of truth for Slovakia. What I had in mind was a necessity for the government to deliver solutions for the most important challenges our country is facing. We need sharp focus on the quality of education and health care, the efficiency of our judiciary system and more determined fight against corruption. Visible and veritable results for our people are necessary. There is a lot of inspiration abroad and here we are looking at the opportunities to learn also from the experience of your countries.

I think this year might be a time of truth also for a larger community.   I am speaking about the European Union. We, in Slovakia, have honourably managed to serve 28 countries of 500 million people in the previous months. I am proud of all who worked hard during these six months of our presidency. I also want to thank all our partners and friends who helped us. But we all know that the success of the EU depends not only on our ability to operate and maintain our common daily tasks. It's the question of attitude and political commitment to the European project. And to values it’s based on — most importantly, empathy and solidarity with each other.

We got a bit frightened when previously unthinkable happened last year in the EU. When forces whose aim is to disrupt our European project were seemingly getting stronger and louder in many member states. Let’s not be mistaken —  inward looking Europe with selfish member states, swallowed by their own short-sighted political objectives and petty internal quarrels would be a path to irrelevance, decline and insecurity. So it’s about time to cease being caught short, because we have homework to do — to reinforce the European values against their enemies in all member countries. There is no such  so-called European agenda which can alleviate this duty of winning our domestic political battles for the idea of continuing peaceful cooperation in Europe.

While speaking about security — I guess we can expect an interesting year of truth also when it comes to our transatlantic alliance, cooperation and responsibilities. Unfortunately, our world is still a very troubled place to live, plagued by terror and killing of innocent. So every progress in eliminating Daesh and other terrorist groups is always good news. The evil of terrorism is a threat to all of us. It is impossible to get used to it. But we must learn to live with it without compromising on our way of life and our values of freedom and tolerance. Opposite only serves the fanatics and those who play with fear and hate and try to benefit from turning people against each other.

Speaking to you on the last two occasions, I had to start with condolences — remembering victims of the terrorist attack in Paris in the first days of 2015. Then tourists in Istanbul  perished in the terrorist attack in the early January 2016. Sadly, this time we were not spared of tragedies either. Ill-minded attacker took many innocent lives at a Berlin Christmas market. Terrorists targeted international crowd celebrating New Year´s Eve in an Istanbul night club. Tragic attacks happened in Jerusalem, Izmir, in Bagdad and throughout the year in Brussels, Nice and many other places worldwide.

While we express full solidarity and support over these heinous attacks to our partners, there is often no mailbox to send our condolences to places where people suffer every day in the most inhumane way. I specially think of people in Syria, in Aleppo. Thousands of innocent victims - women and men, even children,   killed or driven from their homes.

I am afraid we have not yet fully recognized the devastating consequences of these grievances. Pending inability to bring peace to more than five years of internal conflict in Syria, a bloody battlefield of many conflicting interests producing devastated cities. An enormous suffering of civilians falls hard on the conscience of those responsible. Using brutal force against civilians in order to retain power, or to keep political influence has no place in the 21st century. Such methods are illegitimate, unjustifiable and such victories would hardly last without further violence.

I hope that the road from ceasefire to a lasting peace and reconstruction will be the shortest possible for the sake of millions of Syrians who would like to return to their homes one day. From Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon, from Europe and elsewhere. Syria will badly need its young and bright to feel safe at home again and to rebuild the country.

I welcome that the Slovak Government has decided to provide over 500 scholarships to mainly Syrian refugees. First group is already in Slovakia and I plan to meet them and learn about their progress.

Sometimes it’s hard to keep the faith in humanity and justice, especially when we witness the grave breaches of the international order based on rules and principles. Those who ignore these rules should feel the consequences. As in the case of the annexation of Crimea. As you know, I am a strong advocate of Ukraine. We should always treat our neighbours as we want to be treated, especially when they go through difficult times. I truly believe in Ukraine´s potential to become a modern and prosperous country. Three years ago Ukrainians have freely shown exemplary courage to choose their European future and they cannot be let down in favour of any Yalta-kind zones of influence or any similar despicable trade-offs. 

Ladies and Gentlemen,
I want to believe that 2017 will be remembered as one of those better ones in the track-record of human race — a year when we manage to continue decreasing poverty and hunger, to crack down on violence. And to behave in such a way that as few men, women and children as possible will be forced to flee their homes to save their lives.

To conclude, in this new year, let me wish all the best to you personally, to your families, to countries you proudly represent.  And please extend my best wishes to your heads of state all over the world.”