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Slovakia and China are closer. The two countries have elevated their bilateral relations to a “strategic partnership“, Chinese President Xi Jinping announced during the visit of Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico on November 1.
The agreement represents another success in Beijing’s strategy of building support among the EU’s Central European member states, thus preventing any potential unified EU policy against China, following the announcement of a similar agreement with Hungary in last May, he reports BneIntelliNews.
Fico is accompanied by eight government ministers and 56 companies and trade associations, according to the Central European Institute of Asian Studies. Very few details are known since his departure from Bratislava on October 31.
Neither the official agenda, nor the list of members of the delegation, nor the list of people accompanying Robert Fico are known.
To date, Hungary is the largest recipient of Chinese foreign direct investment in recent years and has on some occasions blocked the EU’s unitary foreign policy towards Beijing, proclaiming a pragmatic position that benefits the country and does not want to interfere in China’s internal affairs.
In Slovakia, Fico appears to be following in his footsteps: after forming his cabinet, Fico reoriented Slovakia’s foreign policy from a firm supporter of Ukraine to a position similar to that of Hungary, which calls for peace talks mediated by Beijing.
On several occasions, before and after the attack he suffered, the Slovak Prime Minister recalled that it is in the interest of the Slovak nation to maintain good relations with Moscow. Bratislava is entirely dependent on the Russian Federation for its energy supply. He then said that his country could no longer supply weapons to Kiev having already given everything it could give, having to guarantee the country’s self-defense. Now opening in Beijing.
Before leaving for China, Fico appeared on the Russian channel Russia 1 in an interview, asking for security guarantees for Russia.
Tommaso Dal Passo
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