Ladies and gentlemen. Thank you. Dear Secretary of State, dear Marco, please allow me to welcome you again. Ladies and gentlemen, we had a short meeting with the Secretary of State, and then we had a delegation discussion where we went into details and discussed the topics of our meeting. A brief summary of the meeting of delegations: first of all, I deeply appreciate the fact that this visit comes so quickly after the meeting in Florida, where I had a chance to speak with the President of the United States, Donald Trump.
We got there within a few weeks, which we had discussed together. What I consider the most essential thing from today's meeting, dear Minister, is that we respect each other. I emphasized that I am a representative of a government that wants to conduct a sovereign Slovak foreign policy oriented toward all four corners of the world. I emphasized that my basic priority is not to protect the national and nation-state interests of others, but that my basic duty is to protect the national and nation-state interests of the Slovak Republic. I believe there is a right understanding that wherever our interests converge, we act as allies. Where we have different opinions, that forces us to negotiate, to negotiate, and to find appropriate solutions. I believe I am among the politicians who are always very open in conversations, and I do everything so that what I say in private meetings I also say publicly. So allow me now to give a few conclusions exactly as they were formulated, as the Minister of Foreign Affairs and I exchanged them.
Slovakia cares about cooperation with the United States in the field of nuclear energy. On February 13, an intergovernmental agreement between the United States and Slovakia on cooperation in the field of nuclear energy entered into force. I informed the Minister of Foreign Affairs where we stand. We have a huge interest, under the umbrella of an American partner, to create a transnational consortium that would guarantee that Slovakia could build another nuclear block with an output of 1,200 MW by 2040. And we are glad if we manage to sign concrete agreements with the company Westinghouse during the coming year. I also asked our American partners, of course, for cooperation already in these stages of preparation of this project, because it is a project that goes beyond the framework of Slovakia and also concerns the entire European Union. Therefore, intensive talks with our European partners will be necessary, and in this we will also need the cooperation of American partners.
Speaking of energy, I informed the Minister of Foreign Affairs about what is happening in this region regarding gas and oil. I will not go too far into details. I can only say that Slovakia, as a country that was always at the beginning of various pipelines, whether it was oil or gas, has ended up at the end of these pipelines. We are in an unenviable position because of the ideological and harmful decisions of the European Union. I am speaking in particular about the REPowerEU decision, which stops, for example, the flows of any gas from the east to Europe, starting in our case on November 1, 2027. We have been looking for various alternatives together, and I truly believe that tomorrow's meeting with the Prime Minister of Hungary, Viktor Orbán, may bring some progress regarding the crisis situation that is currently arising in the area of oil supplies to Europe and to the refineries that the Hungarian company controls.
The third topic was, of course, the war in Ukraine. Slovakia has its original, unique positions here, which do not always coincide with the positions of our partners in the European Union, but that is our openness, that is our directness, and that is the implementation of a sovereign policy oriented toward all four corners of the world. I clearly stated to the Minister of Foreign Affairs how we see the war conflict. We believe it will continue for quite a long time. We do not see a way out to a peaceful ending in the short term, and I offered Slovakia as a country that understands the language both in Ukraine and in the Russian Federation, as a country that has good intelligence services, as a country that is a neighboring country of Ukraine, for a good exchange of views on this topic.
Minister, I want to appreciate the approach of your president, because it is the approach of a person who is very pragmatic and rational and wants to end this war as quickly as possible. We also consider it senseless. Therefore, if Slovakia can be helpful in any peace initiatives that will lead to the end of this war, we are fully prepared. Ladies and gentlemen, I would also like to inform you that starting July 1, 2026, Slovakia takes over the presidency in an exceptional structure of regional cooperation, and that is the V4, the Visegrád Group. I would like to confirm the words of the Minister of Foreign Affairs that this format should be used not only for the given regional cooperation, but we should also consider gradually inviting partners to topics that will be very current at a given moment. Therefore, and we talked about this briefly, if after July 1, 2026 a topic arises where it would be useful to talk in the V4 format with the United States of America, and the partners in the V4 agree with it, of course, we will be ready to organize such meetings. On behalf of Slovakia, I say that we are interested in such a V4+ United States format on fundamental issues of foreign and energy cooperation.
Of course, we also exchanged views on a number of other topics. I would like to add that we are a member state of NATO, we are partners in the North Atlantic Alliance. We understand the position of the United States that Europe must take more care of its own security. I think it is very clear and obvious that in Europe we are talking about increasing spending on our own security. This is a natural development that has occurred, and that is why we also talked about the topic of how to proceed with budgets in the coming years. We must take into account our possibilities and capabilities. We are equally aware that Slovakia, if it wants to be part of collective security in Europe and in NATO, will have to participate in gradually strengthening our capacities. I would also like to ask for understanding in that we are interested in using budgets earmarked for military purposes to also build dual-use projects, with the huge military hospital being built near the Ukrainian border in the eastern part of the Slovak Republic as a good example. Military cooperation will continue. You know that we procured F-16 aircraft from the United States. There is an interest in increasing this number to 18 units. So we are discussing how to get four more aircraft into the Slovak army, because it is not a very good sign of sovereignty if our airspace is protected today by fighter jets of Poland and Hungary, due to the donation of military equipment to Ukraine in the years 2020 to 2023. There are many other aspects of military cooperation, because we are together in NATO. This was also discussed by the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Róbert Kaliňák, together with the Minister. Other members of the Slovak delegation also participated in the discussion: the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Environment, the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, who is responsible for cooperation in the field of energy, and of course the partner of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Mr. Blanár. Minister, once again, welcome to Slovakia. The conversation was open. I think that none of us hid anything, and you have probably heard opinions in Slovakia that you do not normally hear, especially regarding the war in Ukraine. But that is what we are here for. We are not here to deceive our partners or to mislead them with information that does not come from objectivity. Thank you for coming, and we look forward to further cooperation.
Thank you very much, Prime Minister. First of all, thank you very much, Prime Minister. This is really a follow-up to the meeting we had recently in Florida, which is my home state, with the President of the United States. And after that meeting, we talked about some things that came out of that meeting, such as, for example, the pipeline and what obstacles there were, and we are trying to resolve them. And I think we are working on that solution, because it is within our joint engagement, how we can achieve more things together. And this meeting actually took place the day after the agreement was signed with Westinghouse, with our Minister of Energy, which provides the basis for this agreement. I use these things only to show the importance of this engagement. Both sides have our teams that are working hard on communication, but direct engagement, direct contacts, and contacts with Europe cannot be replaced — you will now see this more often from our side. As you mentioned, Prime Minister, your Visegrád Group is looking forward to engagement in cooperation. We are looking forward to it, and I do not see why it would be controversial. And we would like to remind everyone that the opinion of the President of the United States, President Trump, is that when our national interests are aligned — when the national interests of the United States, for example, the national interests of Slovakia, are aligned — this is extraordinary for cooperation and for partnership. Where there might be some misalignment, that is where the relationship comes in, that is where the partnership comes in, that is where we try to accommodate one another and find a way forward. There is nothing controversial about that, at least not as long as President Trump is president. And we believe that with the areas of cooperation there are many.
Ukraine, viewed through the lens of geography, the United States' role is trying to facilitate an end to a very deadly, very bloody, very costly war. Horrible suffering — what is happening right now is horrifying. You know, people in the cold part of the year, you know, not going without electricity, energy. There is nothing positive about that. Death, regardless of what the numbers are. And on the other side, we are dealing with a number of new technologies, energy, industry, military sales. Any country is more interested in taking care of its own people. This is why we believe that the stronger all of us are, the stronger we are collectively. The stronger we are collectively, and so we want to play a positive role in that regard, doing many good things in that space. And we thank you and continue to work with you on that. So there are many things that we have to work together on. Thank you for having me here on a Sunday, and I try never to burden people on Sundays. I know that is why we met a few weeks ago. A few weeks ago, here we are. We will be back, sending others back. I think some members of your team are coming to Washington this week. We have a lot to see.
