Slovak Republic - Foreign Relations
Slovakia became a member of NATO on March 29, 2004 and joined the EU in May 2004. Slovakia is a member of the United Nations and participates in its specialized agencies. It is a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), the World Trade Organization (WTO), and the OECD. It also is part of the Visegrad Four (Slovakia, Hungary, Czech Republic, and Poland), a forum for discussing areas of common concern. On December 21, 2007, Slovakia joined the Schengen zone. Slovakia maintains diplomatic relations with 134 countries. There are 35 embassies and 26 honorary consulates in Bratislava. Twenty-one Slovak civilians served in EU-led foreign crisis operations in 2008, including 19 police officers, one military expert, and one customs officer.
Poland, the Czech Republic, the Slovak Republic (commonly referred to as Slovakia), and Hungary are all the members of the Visegrad Group and share certain common characteristics in addition to being geographical neighbors. The Czech Republic and Slovakia were the single country of Czechoslovakia formed from the former Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1918 (with an interruption during the Second World War) until Czechoslovakia's peaceful dissolution into the independent states of the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic in 1993. Hence, the Visegrad group was known as the Visegrad Troika when it was formed February 15, 1991 in Visegrad, Hungary. Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia had all been Communist states and members of the Warsaw Pact during the years following World War II until 1989-1990. All three states had developed heavy industry that was characterized by being very energy intensive and polluting. Poland is much larger than the other states of the Visegrad Group in area and population, having a greater population than the other three combined. Hungary's main ethnic group is not Slavic in origin, unlike the other two (now three) states. Hungary and Slovakia have large minority populations, with both having large populations of Roma, and Slovakia having a significant Hungarian minority. The issue of ethnic Hungarians living outside Hungary has become an important issue for the current Hungarian government, which passed a law granting economic, cultural, and educational benefits to ethnic Hungarians in neighboring countries. This has caused some friction with Slovakia, which sees the law as having an extraterritorial nature.
Slovakia's strategy for building relations with Russia (RU) is based on Slovak national interests and aspires to become conducive to the intensification of a constructive EU-RU dialogue in all areas of common concern (including the energy sector and energy security, which is an extremely important area for Slovakia), while respecting the principle of solidarity among EU Member States. Positive trends have appeared with regard to participation in an energy dialogue between Russia and the EU, which has proved the important role Slovakia plays, particularly in the transit of energy carriers from Russia to Europe. The EU-Russia summits held in 2007 (Samara/RU - May 2007, Mafra/PT - October 2007) proved that the basic short-term EU-Russia cooperation framework would cover those areas where they could build on the achievements already made (e.g., the "Four Spaces" Agreement, visa and re-admission agreement, building of an energy early warning system, etc.).
Russia was also a strategic partner in combating new threats and challenges such as terrorism, environmental pollution, international organised crime and illegal migration. Dialogue with Russia in the UN Security Council facilitated joint efforts in searching for solutions to current global security problems (e.g., the status of Kosovo, Iranian nuclear programme and others).
Slovakia actively pursued the EU's policy towards the Republic of Belarus through the Slovak Embassy in Minsk which, as the first embassy in the history of Slovakia's diplomatic service, performed the tasks of a local EU presidency in a third country in the second half of 2007. The Embassy acted on behalf of the EU towards the Belarusian government and society and promoted the trans-Atlantic dimension of the EU-US cooperation in coordinating relevant activities.
The highest-level dialogue between the EU and the US and Canada continued in the form of summits with both North American partners. The summits demonstrated the strategic importance of trans-Atlantic relations not only for addressing global challenges (the environment, energy security, international security), but for ensuring the economic prosperity of the partners as well. The Trans-Atlantic Economic Council was set up at the EU-US summit held in April as a new forum for the building of an open trans-Atlantic market and intensive economic relations between the two strong and prosperous economies.
Prime Minister of Slovakia Robert Fico made a video statement 24 February 2024 regarding the anniversary of the full scale war in Ukraine. He said the West started a demonization of Putin in hope to get him on his knees, but failed. He furthermore stated that the war already started in 2014 by Ukrainian neo-nazis and also pointed towards NATO 'expanding to the east' which is against Russian interest. He considers Ukraine joining NATO as the basis for World War III and once again expressed that Ukraine, Russia and Europe need peace and security guarantees by the strongest international players.
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