SLOVAKIA SEEKS DIPLOMACY IN UKRAINE CRISIS-Blanar says exemptions and possible future compensation should be considered
Slovakia says it is seeking diplomacy in the ongoing Ukraine and Russia crisis, amidst the pressure being faced to cut back on its purchase of Russian energy.
Slovakia and Hungary – both EU members – have sought to maintain political ties with Russia, which supplies the majority of their oil needs, and have argued that it would be too costly to wean themselves off Russian supplies after building their infrastructure around it..
The West has imposed several sanctions on Russia as a result of the Ukraine and Russia conflict in a bid to hobble Russia’s economy.
Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar, whose country has previously held up packages before a compromise was finally reached, said Slovakia could lose as much as 10 billion euros if it were to break some contracts that run until 2034. He suggests that exemptions and possible future compensation should be considered, and that the bloc should tackle high electricity prices.
Blanar, who held talks in New York with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, said there was a certain hypocrisy to weigh on Slovakia when liquefied natural gas purchases from Russia to Western Europe had increased by 30% over the last year.
Blanar dismissed categorisations that Slovakia and Hungary were the black sheep in Europe for continuing to engage with Moscow arguing that there would not be a military solution to the war and that as Trump had himself done it was necessary to engage with Moscow.
