Ambassador of Slovakia: You still have what we are starting to lack - healthy forests

The new Ambassador of the Slovak Republic in Bucharest, Karol Mistrik, declared for AGERPRES, on Thursday, that Romania's forests in the Carpathians are still healthy and they need to be protected as national wealth. 

"I would like to say a personal opinion. The Carpathians and Tatra are part of the same mountain range and they unite us. I come from the most beautiful mountainous part of the Carpathians in Tatra, the Slovakian area and I had the opportunity to pass the Carpathians in Romania. You still have what we are starting to lack. You still have healthy forests, that you must protect, because they are more than personal wealth," the Slovak ambassador declared. 

Asked about how he perceives the change in our country, post-1989, Mistrik remembered a very long road and full of surprises through Romania, when he was a student. Today, he says, after traveling more than 4,000 kilometers in the four months since he has been Slovakia's ambassador to Romania, considers that "everyone must renew their photographs". 

"During the communist era, everyone from Czechoslovakia came to the Black Sea in Romania or Bulgaria. We did not know exactly how Romania presented itself, but they used to talk about how it was poorer rather than richer. Anyone who visits Romania today must renew their photographs of old times, because it surprises you in a pleasant way. Romania has taken great strides, one cannot only see in Bucharest that it is a European metropolis, but in all corners of the country," Karol Mistrik declared. 

The diplomat took part on Thursday in a reception organized by the Oradiei Citadel, marking the occasion of Slovakia's National Day. During the visit in Bihor County, he will have meetings on Friday with representatives of the Slovak community of Sinteu, Popesti and Suplacu de Barcau municipalities. In Popesti he will visit the Jozef Kozacek Theoretical High School, of Budoi, the only Slovak high school in Bihor county, and in Suplacu de Barcau he is awaited to celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, alongside the chairman of U.D.S.C.R (Democratic Union of Slovaks and Czechs of Romania, e.n.) Adrian Miroslav Merka.