Czech Republic–Slovakia relations
Before 1918, both countries were part of Austria–Hungary. However, after the Ausgleich of 1867 Czechia belonged to the Austrian Empire while Slovakia belonged to the administratively separate Kingdom of Hungary, and between 1918 and December 31, 1992, both countries were part of Czechoslovakia. 
Both countries established diplomatic relations on January 1, 1993. These international relations are usually referred to or described as "very good", "cordial", and "above standard" in the media. When a Czech or Slovak president is inaugurated, very often his first international visit is to the former part of the common country. The same custom applies to newly elected prime ministers of the Czech Republic and Slovakia.
Slovaks in Czechoslovakia (1948–89)
The division between Czechs and Slovaks in Czechoslovakia persisted as a key element in the reform movement of the 1960s and the retrenchment of the 1970s, a decade that dealt harshly with the aspirations of both Czechs and Slovaks. Ethnicity still remained integral to the social, political, and economic affairs of the country. In 1968, a Slovak writer called for a more positive reappraisal of the Slovak Republic. Although as a Marxist he found Monsignor Jozef Tiso's "clerico-fascist state" politically abhorrent, he acknowledged that "the Slovak Republic existed as the national state of the Slovaks, the only one in our history..." Comparable sentiments surfaced periodically throughout the 1970s in letters to Bratislava's Pravda, even though the newspaper's editors tried to inculcate in their readership a "class and concretely historical approach" to the nationality question.