Petr Fiala disagrees on several key issues with his Hungarian and Slovak counterparts.Continue reading
The foreign ministers of the four Visegrád Group countries agreed in Prague on Thursday that Russia’s war against Ukraine is a violation of international law, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky informed the press after the meeting.
“We had a frank and open discussion, which is exactly what we need today. The Czech (V4) presidency believes that it is important to maintain dialogue in the Visegrád Group, which is one of the means of mutual relations,” the Czech Minister said, describing the meeting.
According to Mr. Lipavsky, there is a need to increase assistance to Ukraine in all areas.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said that “Ukraine has the right to remain within its internationally recognized borders.” He also praised the Czech initiative to provide Ukraine with ammunition from countries outside the European Union. “Poland is providing not only financial but also logistical support for this,” he added.
According to Minister Sikorski the V4 should also coordinate their tactics in areas such as migration, infrastructure, agriculture, and energy.
The ministerial statements showed that the four Visegrád countries agree that Russia is the aggressor and Ukraine is the country under attack, and that assistance is needed, but that there are already differences of opinion in what form this should take. While Mr. Sikorski and Mr. Lipavsky noted that their countries were supplying arms and ammunition to the Kiev government, Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and Slovak Foreign Minister Juraj Blanár stated that their countries were providing only humanitarian aid to the Ukrainians.
Budapest and Bratislava are therefore not joining the Czechs’ initiative to buy ammunition.
According to Jan Lipavsky, the initiative is so far supported by 18 countries.
“There is no military solution to the Russian-Ukrainian conflict,” said Juraj Blanár, interpreting the Slovak government’s position.
At the Prague meeting, the four foreign ministers agreed to a Hungarian proposal to increase the budget of the International Visegrád Fund by 10 percent, from the current EUR 10M per year.
Via MTI; Featured Image: Facebook / Szijjártó Péter