Slovak Foreign Minister Favors Practical Cooperation with Russia :: Charter'97 :: News

Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Eduard Kukan met with Slovak ambassadors at a meeting on Tuesday that is held once every two years. Besides some critical remarks concerning Hungarian policy concerning minorities, the minister expressed concern about the current situation in Russia, Belarus and Ukraine. Even though Mr. Kukan called present signals of deformations of democracy in Russia worrying, he confirmed Slovakia`s continuing interest in cooperating with Russia on a practical level, including active communication within both the EU-Russia and NATO-Russia format The minister insisted that cooperation is more effective than isolation, even though this policy should not be interpreted as ignoring Russian interference in neighboring countries or as in any way respecting Russia`s lack of will to see frozen conflicts solved as well as its failure to comply with Istanbul commitments from 1999.

Concerning Belarus, the minister expects no early change in the local authoritarian regime, even though he sees certain hope in the membership of Belarus in the Central European Initiative that could help it on its way to democracy. However, the minister expressly refrained from excessive optimism in handling the situation in Belarus because the absence of fundamental rights indicates a giant gap between the authoritarian regime and European standards.

These circumstances call for the need to accomplish basic democratic tasks, among which priority should be given to the creation of alternative sources of information for the public. The minister also pointed out difficulties encountered by non-governmental organizations when putting into practice their projects, while the international community does not always demonstrate its readiness to handle the specific situation in Belarus in an appropriate way. The foreign minister also expects difficulties in Ukraine. As he explained, despite the "Orange Revolution," the Ukrainian society remains divided and its further evolution will become more clearly predictable only after the parliamentary elections. Moreover, the complexity of unpopular reforms exceeds the possibilities of the current government.

Despite this, Mr. Kukan affirmed his conviction that Ukraine`s further approach to the EU framed by EU policy for neighboring countries is the right way to go and represents an alternative to Ukrainian pro-Russian tendencies. The minister also recalled a Slovak initiative addressed to EU member states last December with the message to intensify economic cooperation with Ukraine. He announced that the Slovak plan for Ukrainian aid, comprising among others political and specialized consultations, will appear by the end of the month.