Bratislava is ready to host a higher number of soldiers of the North Atlantic Alliance armies in Slovakia if necessary.
It is also ready to increase electricity supplies to Ukraine, which is facing a third year of Russian aggression. Slovak President Peter Pellegrini announced this today in Warsaw after a meeting with his Polish counterpart Andrzej Duda.
In front of the journalists, he praised the very good neighborly relations between the two countries, which, according to him, is also proven by Pellegrini’s visit, undertaken before the NATO summit. The new Slovak president visited Poland on his second foreign trip in office, after visiting the Czech Republic.
According to Pellegrini, despite its media image, which emphasizes the restrained attitude of Prime Minister Robert Fico’s government to support Ukraine, Slovakia is actually doing “a lot of work” for Kyiv. According to the head of state, this is evidenced by the increase in the production of ammunition and cannon barrels in Slovak armories, as well as the export of electricity to Ukraine, whose electricity production capacity is being destroyed by Russian airstrikes. Pellegrini also emphasized that Slovakia does not recognize the Russian annexation of Crimea or the violent change of borders in the east and south of Ukraine.
“Since the beginning of the war, we have already exported more than 40,000 megawatts of electricity to Ukraine, and we are going to increase supplies in autumn and winter, which will probably be crucial for Ukraine,” the head of state said at a joint press conference.
Fico’s government, after coming to power last year, in accordance with pre-election promises, ended free aid to Ukraine from state warehouses, but kept commercial contacts – for example, for the supply of Slovak Zuzana howitzers – in force.
“Our northern neighbor is a strategic partner for Slovakia. Poland is one of the three countries that are Slovakia’s largest investor or largest business partner,” noted the Slovak president. We are also united by the success stories of our membership in the European Union and NATO, he added, emphasizing that Slovakia’s defense spending exceeded two percent of the gross domestic product, as the alliance’s member states committed.
According to him, Bratislava does not question the goals of the Green Deal for the EU, but the chosen instruments, because it cannot afford to jeopardize its economy and jobs. He offered Duda the help and experience of Slovak experts in the plan to build nuclear energy in Poland.
Source: zpravy.tiscali.cz
