Slovakia needs evidence to condemn North Korea-Russia ballistic missile transfers

Bratislava claims it will join the 48 countries that condemned the alleged ballistic missile transfers between North Korea and Russia to attack Ukraine, noting, however, that it “needs relevant evidence” before doing so.

Among EU member states, only Slovak and Hungarian signatures were missing under the joint statement initiated by the US.

They were also signed by High Representative Joseph Borrel for the EU, condemning DPRK urging all UN member states to join them in reflecting on “flagrant UNSCR violations“.

In the Slovak parliament, however, the opposition in parliament criticised the government for its stance: “Fico is pulling us into international isolation faster than even the pessimists predicted,” said Tomáš Valašek, the ex-ambassador of Slovakia to NATO, now a MP for the leading opposition party Progressive Slovakia.

According to Valašek, “only the governments of Fico, Orbán and Erdogan refused to choose between dictatorship and democracy, the free world and the totalitarian one.”

After deciding not to sign the declaration, Prime Minister Robert Fico stated his government “respects the fact that international agreements that ban the use of such missiles exist”.

“And we will condemn any violations if they are proven – in the same way as we condemned the use of Russian military force in Ukraine,” he added.

At the same time, Fico claimed that we submitted the resolution without an option to change it, and Slovakia would not be “cheap rubber-stamping anything that comes from abroad”.

He also repeated the words “Slovakia acting as a sovereign country from now on”, for which he was praised by Russian President Vladimir Putin back in December.

(Natália Silenská | Euractiv.sk)