Slovakia’s prime minister Robert Fico met with his Italian counterpart Giorgia Meloni on Tuesday, June 3rd in Rome.
According to Slovak news agency TASR, following the meeting, the Slovak PM told the media that Slovakia and Italy should cooperate in the field of arms production, as Slovakia is very proficient in the production of large calibre ammunition, while Italy is efficient in the production of small calibre ammunition. The countries are in this context close to signing an intergovernmental agreement on joint procurement, Fico said.
The Slovak prime minister also shared that Slovakia and Italy had agreed on the possibility of building small modular reactors in Jaslovske Bohunice (Trnava region), where spent nuclear fuel will be used. According to Fico, this will be a huge breakthrough.
Slovakia would also be interested in Italy importing natural gas.
Robert Fico also discussed the issue of the European Commission’s RePowerEU plan with Meloni. According to Fico, he raised the question of what would happen if Russia’s Gazprom, which has a contract with Slovakia until 2035, applied the basic principle of that contract and Slovakia would have to pay more than €20 billion for the gas it had not taken. Fico stated that he remains a big supporter of Russian energy imports into Europe because they will significantly stabilise prices, and predicted that if RePowerEU is adopted, the price of energy will rise sharply and Europe will be even less competitive than it was before.
