Vice President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, yesterday received Robert Fico, Prime Minister of Slovakia, and members of the accompanying delegation at Zabeel Palace. During the meeting, H.H. Sheikh Mohammed accepted an invitation from the Slovak prime minister to visit Bratislava. He promised to pay the visit at a suitable time. He stressed that the government and leaders of the UAE welcome cultural, tourism and economic openness with Slovakia and building strong and balanced relations based on common interests, mutual respect and constructive cooperation that fulfills the goals of the two countries and their peoples. The parties discussed about existing friendly UAE-Slovakia relations and ways of bolstering them relations by creating new avenues for cooperation and investment partnership to serve the interests of the peoples of the two friendly countries. They later attended the signing ceremony of an agreement on avoidance of double taxation and prevention of income tax evasion between the UAE and Slovakia. The Slovak prime minister noted that his country's potential encourage the creation of joint investments in sectors like health, medical tourism, innovation and peaceful nuclear power. He expressed his government's desire to build cooperation in the public and private sectors of Slovakia and the UAE. H.H. Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Crown Prince of Dubai, and H.H. Sheikh Maktoum bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Deputy Ruler of Dubai, attended the meeting and the signing ceremony of the new agreement signed by Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico of Slovakia and the UAE's Minister of State for Financial Affairs, Obaid bin Humaid Al Tayer. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid expressed confidence that the agreement will be the first good step towards expanding relations and favourable opportunities for joint investments, in particular in the private sectors of both countries. Also present at the signing ceremony were Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Gargawi, Minister for Cabinet Affairs; Sultan bin Saeed Al Mansouri, Minister of Economy and head of the honourary mission accompanying the Slovak prime minister; Dr. Anwar bin Mohammed Gargash, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs; Reem bint Ibrahim Al Hashemi, Minister of State; Mohammed Ibrahim Al Shaibani, Director-General of the Court of Dubai Ruler; Khalifa Saeed Sulaiman, Director-General of Dubai's Protocol and Hospitality Department. From the Slovak side, Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak and Ambassador to the UAE Dusan Horniak were also present.
