Thank you very much. Very well. Respected Mr. Secretary of State of the United States of America, dear Rubio, allow me to welcome you once again, together with your delegation, to Bratislava at the Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic.
Ladies and gentlemen, together with the Secretary, we first had a short meeting, and then we negotiated in delegations, where we discussed in greater detail the topics that are the essence of our entire meeting today. I will try to very briefly summarize the conclusions of our talks, whether they took place one-on-one or in the delegations.
First of all, I greatly appreciate that this visit comes shortly after our meeting in Florida, where I had the opportunity to speak with the President of the United States of America, Mr. Trump, in the presence of Mr. Rubio. Therefore, this is an excellent follow-up, it is a wonderful continuation, and we were able to tell each other shortly after we saw each other in Florida where we have gotten to in the topics we discussed together over the past few weeks.
I consider the most essential thing from today's meeting, respected Mr. Secretary, to be 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. And I believe there is a correct understanding that wherever our interests converge, we act as allies. Where we have different opinions, that forces us to negotiate, to bargain, and to find appropriate solutions.
I believe I am among the politicians who are always very open in their conversations, and I do everything so that what I say in private meetings I also say in public. Therefore, allow me now to present a few conclusions exactly as they were formulated, as the Secretary of State 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 Secretary of State where we stand.
We have a huge interest, under the auspices 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 look forward to signing concrete agreements with the company Westinghouse during the coming year.
I also asked our American partners for cooperation already in these stages of preparing 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.
Since we are on the subject of energy, I informed the Secretary of State about what is happening in this region regarding gas and oil. I will not go into great detail. 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 into 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 controlled by the Hungarian MOL.
The third topic was the war in Ukraine. Here Slovakia has its original, unique positions, 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 realization of a sovereign policy oriented toward all four corners of the world.
I clearly told the Secretary of State how we see the war conflict. We believe it will continue for quite some time. We do not see a way out toward a peaceful ending in the near term, and I offered Slovakia as a country that understands the language both in Ukraine and in the Russian Federation, as a country with good intelligence services, as a neighboring country of Ukraine, for a good exchange of views on this topic.
And Mr. Secretary, 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 too consider it senseless. Therefore, if Slovakia can be helpful in any peace initiatives that will lead to ending 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 chairmanship of an exceptional structure of regional cooperation, namely the V4, the Visegrád Group. I would like to confirm the words of the Secretary of State that this format should be used not only for that regional cooperation, but that we should also consider gradually inviting partners to topics that will be very relevant at a given moment.
Therefore, and we spoke briefly about this, if after July 1, 2026 a topic arises where it would be useful to talk in the format of V4 plus the United States of America, and the partners in the V4 of course agree with that, we will be ready to organize such meetings on behalf of Slovakia. I am saying that we are interested in such a format of V4 plus the United States on fundamental questions 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. That is a natural development that has occurred, and therefore we also talked about how to proceed with budgets in the coming years. We must take into account our possibilities and capabilities. But we equally realize 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 regarding the fact that we are interested in using budgets designated for military purposes to also build dual-use projects. A good example is the huge military hospital being built near the Ukrainian border in the eastern part of the Slovak Republic.
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 another four 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, Hungary, and the Czech Republic.
We got into this unenviable situation because military equipment was donated to Ukraine between 2020 and 2023. There are many other aspects of military cooperation, because we are together in NATO. The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense, Robert Kaliňák, also spoke about this with the Secretary.
Other members of the Slovak delegation also took part in the discussion. There was 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 Secretary of State, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Mr. Blanár.
Mr. Secretary, once again, welcome to Slovakia. The conversation was open. I believe that none of us hid anything, and once again you have probably heard in Slovakia opinions that you do not usually hear, especially regarding the war in Ukraine. But that is what we are here for. We are not here to lie to 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.
First of all, thank you, Prime Minister, for welcoming us. We met not too long ago in Florida, in the United States. There were some issues that came up; we were able to resolve those, and we are happy that they were resolved, because it shows how this engagement could lead to more things together in the West.
For energy, it is incredible. Just to illustrate the importance of this direct engagement: we both have excellent teams and people who work very hard and communicate all the time, but there is no substitute for that direct level of engagement. And engagement in Central Europe is what you can expect to see more of from the United States of America.
Prime Minister, you mentioned the V4 and cooperation. You mentioned something else. I don't know why it ever became controversial, but it is important to remind everybody of the view of the President of the United States, President Trump, and of the United States under his presidency: that we expect every country in the world to act in its national interest.
That is exactly how we conduct our policy. And when the national interests of the United States and the national interests of Slovakia are aligned, this is extraordinary for cooperation and for partnership. Where they might not align, that is where the relationship comes in, that is where the partnership comes in.
With the war in Ukraine, you have a very important point of view, as I said yesterday in response to that. You are playing a role in trying to facilitate an end to a very deadly, very bloody, very costly war. The horrible suffering that is happening is horrifying. People in parts of the year, you know, going without electricity and energy. This is positive about that. The death, regardless of what the numbers are on both sides, is way too high.
And the president has spent a year at the highest levels of our government trying to find how we can be facilitators of a negotiated end to this terrible conflict. And it is something that we care about, but it is something you, next door to it, on the border right there, you have a significant input in that.
We talked about a lot of things. We have an opportunity to work together on energy, is one of them. I think you have an opportunity as a nation, not just because you can generate energy, to also be in a very advantageous role when it comes to new technologies like artificial intelligence. That is an example of an opportunity there, a very energy-dependent industry, and something we can work on together.
One key for any country is the ability to take care of its own people. And this is why we believe that the stronger we all are, the stronger we are collectively. The stronger we are collectively, and we want to play a positive role in that regard. And you are doing many good things in that space, and we want to thank you and continue to work with you on that. So there are many things that we have an opportunity to work together on.
Thank you for having me here today. I thank you for the space you gave us on this day, because we are going to show, and we are going to show in the weeks and months and years to come, that under the Trump administration we are going to make not just Slovakia but Central Europe a key component of how we engage the continent and the world, and that we are not going to engage in meetings and pleasantries.
Our country is very excited about this. Why did we meet a few weeks ago? A few weeks, a few weeks — here we are. We will be back, sending others back. I think some members of your team are coming to Washington this week to have a conversation. So we are going to get going.
