The cabinets of the Czech Republic and Slovakia at a joint meeting on Monday will discuss issues of cooperation in energy and defense, as well as assistance to Ukraine, Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala told reporters before the meeting.
⠀
“We are interested in high-quality cooperation between the states of Central Europe, for this we have certain formats, for example, the Visegrad Four (Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary – V4), which is now headed by Slovakia. We will discuss its experience, since from July 1 the Czech Republic will become to chair V4. In addition, we will talk about cooperation between our two countries in the field of energy, defense, as well as assistance to Ukraine,” Fiala said before a meeting of the governments of the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the Slovak city of Trencin (in the west of the country).
⠀
According to Fiala, Slovakia is one of the most important partners of the Czech Republic in the defense industry.
⠀
“We would like to ensure that the armies of our two countries use Czech-made aircraft with a significant participation of Slovak suppliers. We are also interested in the active involvement of Slovak defense firms in such projects that could be exported to third-country markets,” Fiala said.
⠀
According to Fiala, the ministers of both countries will also discuss issues of energy security and assistance to Ukraine at the meeting in Trencin.
⠀
“Both of our countries have successfully survived this winter, saving a significant part of their gas reserves for the future and parting with dependence on Russian gas,” the Czech prime minister said.
⠀
The first joint meeting of the governments of the Czech Republic and Slovakia took place in 2012, and this tradition continued until 2019, after which it was interrupted due to the covid pandemic. In addition to the prime ministers, the current meeting is attended by the ministers of foreign affairs, industry and trade, defense, justice, education, digitalization and local development.
