go to the original language article
Brussels – The use of weapons supplied to Ukraine by the West was not a topic at Thursday’s informal meeting of diplomats from EU member countries in Brussels. This was stated by State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Marek Eštok, after the negotiations, clarifying that Slovakia only supplies Ukraine with non-lethal military equipment, reports the Brussels correspondent of TASR.
Eštok expressed disappointment that the meeting did not take place in Budapest, as planned under the Hungarian presidency of the EU Council.
“Borrell decided that the meeting would take place in Brussels. We consider this as a precedent for future presidencies,” Eštok said, referring to the decision made in July by the EU’s chief diplomat, Josep Borrell.
Eštok appreciated the “long and very productive” internal discussion with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba. He reminded that Kuleba called on EU countries to focus on two aspects before the upcoming winter: the supply of anti-missile defense and ensuring Ukraine’s energy self-sufficiency during the winter.
“I reiterated that we are preparing the third meeting of the Ukrainian and Slovak governments, this time on the Ukrainian side, near the border, and part of the discussions will be an evaluation of the meeting in Michalovce, which focused on the connection of energy systems between Slovakia and Ukraine and the supply of electricity from Slovakia to Ukraine. I repeated that the Slovak side is modernizing and expanding the transmission system capacity so that we can supply more to Ukraine even during the winter,” Eštok described the situation. He added that other infrastructure projects are also being prepared.
Borrell and Kuleba at the beginning of Thursday’s meeting called on EU states not to prevent Kyiv from using the weapon systems supplied to them for strikes on Russian territory. Eštok clarified that diplomats did not discuss this topic and reminded that each country addresses this on a bilateral basis in negotiations with Ukraine.
In this context, he emphasized that the Slovak government only supplies non-lethal combat equipment to Ukraine.
The Council of Ministers also discussed the situation in the Middle East, and Eštok stated that Slovakia is concerned about the deteriorating humanitarian situation in the Palestinian territories, Gaza Strip, and the West Bank.
“As its own contribution, Slovakia organized a special humanitarian medical flight for patients from Gaza, in cooperation with Belgium and the European Commission, and we are ready to use our military aircraft again,” Eštok said. (August 29)