Slovak Prime Minister Stresses Importance of Maintaining Dialogue With Russia

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on Thursday underscored the importance of maintaining a dialogue between Bratislava and Moscow, thereby refusing to follow the Western trend of pretending that "Russia does not exist."

On November 30, Fico received the US and Russian ambassadors. In a video message posted on social media on Wednesday, Fico said he respected each of them, as he did not "wear black and white glasses." The Slovak leader added that his country should prepare itself for the post-Ukraine conflict period and for the "standardization of Slovak-Russian relations."

"I confirm that meetings with the US and Russian ambassadors were held in the government office. Those meetings were standard in nature, because Slovakia is a country that had and will have friendly relations with any country in the world which is equally interested in it ... I would like to openly say that I reject the idea that Russia does not exist. Russia was, is and will be," Fico told Slovak lawmakers during a question-and-answer session in parliament.

The Ukraine conflict will end at some point, which will be followed by a "significant standardization of relations" with Russia, the Slovak prime minister added.

"Russia used to be an important partner of Slovakia, but today I have to admit that the relations are practically dead. Today, our embassy in Moscow, as well as Russia's embassy in Bratislava, are in total isolation and there are no meetings with anyone. But I do not think that it is right. We have to talk, because if we do not talk, we will never make any progress," Fico said.

Slovakia will adhere to its own interests in international politics, he added.

The Slovak prime minister also said that sanctions against Russia did not work, but it was a "taboo topic" in the EU's highest bodies.

"If you try to raise it and suggest that they [the sanctions] do not [work], you will be told you are politically incorrect, although it is the truth. But you are not allowed to say that truth," he said.

Fico also criticized another package of sanctions that is currently being prepared by the EU.

"Answer yourself a question: what have the sanctions affected? Yes, with a high probability they could complicate the lives of Russian citizens, but it is naive to think that if Russian citizens cannot buy US phones, then they will not be able to replace them with phones made by China or some other country," he said.

As a result, the sanctions caused Russia to become independent in the areas it had not been so before, the Slovak prime minister noted.

"And the worst thing is that the sanctions often cause harm to the European Union and Slovakia," Fico said.

The prime minister also reaffirmed his statement made in October that Slovakia would not support sanctions against Russia's civilian nuclear energy industry as they could significantly harm the operations of Slovak nuclear power plants and their nuclear fuel supplies.

There are two nuclear power plants in Slovakia, built with the participation of Soviet and Russian experts. One of them is located in the city of Mochovce in central Slovakia, and the other in the city of Bohunice in the west. The two of them combined generate over half of all the electricity in the country. Russian state corporation Rosatom used to supply them with fuel. In March 2022, Slovakia received another batch of fuel that should suffice until the end of 2023. In August 2023, Slovakia's company Slovenske elektrarne signed a supply contract on nuclear fuel with US company Westinghouse.