Fico: Italy and Slovakia Should Cooperate in Arms Production

Rome, 3 June (TASR-correspondent) - Italy and Slovakia should cooperate in the field of arms production, Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) told the media following a meeting with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni in Rome, adding that Slovakia is very proficient in the production of large calibre ammunition and Italy is efficient in the production of small calibre ammunition. The countries are in this context close to signing an intergovernmental agreement on joint procurement. "Joint public procurement means that several countries can jointly procure, which is extremely advantageous and, above all, it is cheaper than when you do it individually," he pointed out, adding that Slovakia also offers its own products, such as howitzers or mine clearing machines. The Slovak prime minister also said that Slovakia and Italy had agreed on the possibility of building small modular reactors in Jaslovske Bohunice (Trnava region), where spent nuclear fuel will be used. This will be a cooperation between the state-owned Nuclear and Decommissioning Company (JAVYS) and a European private company called NewCleo. According to Fico, this will be a huge breakthrough. Slovakia would also be interested in Italy importing natural gas. With Meloni, the prime minister also discussed the European Commission's RePowerEU plan, which would mean stopping gas, oil and nuclear fuel supplies from Russia. At the meeting, as he said, he raised the question of what would happen if Russia's Gazprom, which has a contract with Slovakia until 2035, applied the basic principle of that contract and Slovakia would have to pay more than €20 billion for the gas it had not taken. Fico stated that he remains a big supporter of Russian energy imports into Europe because they will significantly stabilise prices. He predicts that if RePowerEU is adopted, the price of energy will rise sharply and Europe will be even less competitive than it was before. am