Slovakia’s new Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár will be received by Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg (ÖVP) in Vienna on Wednesday. A joint press conference is scheduled for 12:20 p.m. The government in Bratislava, led by Prime Minister Robert Fico, who has been in office since the end of October, announced the abandonment of the pro-Ukraine policies of his predecessors. Before his visit to Vienna, Blanár called for a peaceful solution to the war in Ukraine.
Slovakia opposes further military aid to the country attacked by Russia and also criticizes new EU economic sanctions against Moscow. Fico’s left-wing populist party, Smer-SD (Social Democratic Party), will demand an investigation into the effects on the EU before a 12th package of EU sanctions, said Blanár, who also belongs to the Smer party. One red line is sanctions against Russia’s nuclear fuel. Slovakia has two nuclear power plants – Bohunice and Mochovce, both located not far from the Austrian border.
In the government program for 2020, the turquoise-green federal government committed to combating “the new construction and expansion of nuclear power plants in Europe, especially in neighboring countries, using all available political and legal means”. In particular, the commissioning of the Slovak reactors Mochovce 3 and 4 should be avoided.