Photo: Tass/Alexander Kryazhev
Bratislava opposes military aid to Kiev and wants to revise the defence agreement with the United States. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is due to meet his Ukrainian counterpart Denis Shmygal in Uzhhorod on 24 January. The meeting is expected to finalise Bratislava's withdrawal from the Western coalition that provides military aid to Kiev. The new Slovak leadership believes that the former leadership pursued policies that dealt a blow to the country's national interests. The opposition in the republic categorically opposes the prime minister's decisions and has taken to the streets in protest.
Against expansion
"As far as (Ukraine's) accession to the EU is concerned, we support these plans, but they must meet the conditions," Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said ahead of a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Denis Šmygal scheduled for 24 January. He also promised to inform him of his refusal to support Kiev's entry into NATO. "And I will tell him that I will veto and block this entry of Ukraine into NATO, because this is the basis of World War III and nothing more," the Slovak prime minister said.
He also promised to hand over a list of humanitarian aid to Šmygal, while stressing that Bratislava would not send weapons to Kiev. "Let whoever wants to make money from weapons. I know what I will come up with. I will come with humanitarian aid," Fico summed up.
He said he would tell his Ukrainian counterpart that "there are things on which (the two countries') views are completely different". The prime minister also sharply criticised the Ukrainian policy of Washington and Brussels, stressing Kiev's total dependence on the United States and the lack of an independent EU Ukraine policy.
"Since 2014, after the Maidan, Ukraine has been under the complete control and influence of US and EU makes a big mistake in not having a sovereign opinion on Ukraine and only agreeing with what they say about Ukraine United States," Fico said.
Relations with the United States
The prime minister, who came to power in Slovakia last October, has opposed providing a new aid package to Ukraine of €50 billion. His decision was backed by his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orbán. As a result, the allocation of funds to Kiev was never agreed.
Photo: Tass/Alexander Kryazhev
In early November, the Slovak authorities also blocked the transfer of €40.3 million in military aid to Ukraine. The previous government sent 13 military aid packages to Kiev, including weapons and ammunition worth €671 million. In April 2022, Bratislava transferred the S-300 air defence system to Kiev, and a year later MiG-29 fighter jets. Slovakia has recently been increasingly withdrawing from Euro-Atlantic politics.
In addition to opposing Ukraine's NATO membership, Bratislava has decided to revise its defence agreements with Washington under the new authorities. In late October last year, Slovak Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Robert Kaliňák said his country would renegotiate its February 2022 defense cooperation agreement with the US on terms that would be more favorable to the republic.
"At the meeting (with the US ambassador) we said that we value good relations with our Western partners, but we are not like the previous servile governments (Robert Fico's predecessors - ed.). We are grateful for constructive dialogue and cooperation, but only if it is mutually beneficial," Kaliňák explained.
At the same time, Prime Minister Robert Fico stressed that when signing the defence agreement with Washington, Bratislava did not act "as an equal contractual partner". According to the document, the United States was granted the right to use two airports located in Slovakia. "Our agreement does not leave us any sovereignty. When an American convoy is on its way, nobody can stop it, nobody knows what they are carrying, we cannot even ask what they are carrying in their cars," Fico complained.
In particular, this document gives Washington the right to use two airports located on Slovak territory. According to the head of the Ministry of Defence, Kaliňák the new cabinet concluded that the previous government had accepted worse conditions than governments of the Czech Republic and other countries. In this context, Bratislava intends to start new negotiations with Washington on changing a number of conditions with which it is not satisfied.
Normalisation of relations with Russia
Moreover, Slovakia was the first country to renew cultural cooperation with Russia. On 20 January, the Republic repealed the decree under which cultural cooperation with the Russian Federation and Belarus had been suspended. "There are dozens of war conflicts in the world and in our opinion artists and culture should not suffer because of them," the country's culture minister Martina Šimkovičová was quoted as saying by her spokesman Pavel Čorba.
The actions of the new Slovak authorities are provoking resistance from the opposition, which recently organised protests of many thousands. They are organised by representatives of the parliamentary opposition, which lost power after the election results. At the demonstrations, protesters are demanding that the government abandon planned reforms, and there are calls for the resignation of the cabinet of ministers.
As Croatian political analyst Daniel Vrbota explained in an interview with Izvestija, it was clear from the beginning that Robert Fico would have strained relations. "At the same time, he has strong contacts with Hungary. Both countries are a thorn in the side of Brussels. They can violate the basic principles of the EU and yet go unpunished because they always support each other," he explained.
"It shows. Especially in Slovakia. Prime Minister Robert Fico spoke about the need for peace talks at the very beginning of the conflict. And it is only a matter of time before other countries of the European Union share this view. Already today we see many politicians in the most powerful EU countries and the US talking about at least a stalemate on the battlefield, and that is why we should move to negotiations with Russia," the expert concluded.
Izvestia/Ksenia Loginova/gnews.cz/JaV_07
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