Fico: Let's Try to Revive Joint Talks between Slovak and Czech Governments

Bratislava, 31 May (TASR) - Slovaks and Czechs should create pressure for the revival of joint negotiations between the Slovak and Czech governments, Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) said at an event of the Czech Svatopluk Association in Bratislava on Saturday, adding that pressure should also be put on reviving the idea of the Visegrad Four (V4 - the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia). "I can repeat on behalf of the government, at any time, in any place in Slovakia, on any topic, the government is ready to negotiate with our partner Czech government," stated Fico, noting that there are many topics to be discussed between the countries. The premier also pointed to the V4 grouping, which is currently politically dead. According to him, the V4 format has been deliberately broken. "It is not a question of leaders not understanding each other. It was a permanent concentrated pressure from large Western countries to break up the V4 as a strong regional association," he pointed out. Fico also thinks that Slovakia and the Czech Republic should talk more about their stance on the war in Ukraine. "We are at a stage where we should make every effort to end the killing in Ukraine," he said. The prime minister also wants to know what the Czech Republic's position is on veto power in the European Union. According to Fico, it is not possible for someone to take away the right of veto from a member state. He reiterated that if there is no veto, there will be no European Union. In addition to the premier, the event was also attended by Voice-SD leader Matus Sutaj Estok and Slovak National Party (SNS) chair Andrej Danko. Sutaj Estok considers it to be a fundamental mistake from the point of view of Czech-Slovak relations that the Czech government cancelled the cabinet negotiations because of the different attitudes towards the war. "I'm convinced that any disagreements and differences belong at the negotiating table and there we must seek common solutions, to debate together and explain our positions," he said. "I believe that we'll continue this cooperation no matter who will try to break our relations, but I'm convinced that our relations won't be broken by anyone," added Danko. am