Slovakia expects to find “common ground” with the United States after pressure to end Russian energy purchases, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Thursday as he defended receiving supplies from Moscow. The European Union has sought to isolate Russia for its 2022 invasion of Ukraine and to phase out purchases of Russian fuel that can provide revenues for the war. U.S. President Donald Trump has also said he wants the bloc to end its Russian energy purchases.
Slovakia and Hungary, however, have consistently defended their purchases of Russian oil and gas and say alternatives are expensive and unreliable.
In a question-and-answer session with lawmakers on Thursday, Fico said Slovakia’s oil and gas purchases amounted to 2% of Russia’s revenue from these sources and have “no impact on financing the war”.
“The problem of oil and gas in Slovakia is not a question of supporting the war. It is not an ideological question that we can solve with alternatives in 15 seconds,” Fico said.
“It is a geographical issue, we simply do not have other options.” Fico said changing technologies to accommodate different sources was expensive and transport fees are much higher than for Russian fuel. Fico also said Slovakia had no access to gas terminals.
Regarding alternative oil routes, Fico said the Adriatic pipeline is technologically unproven.
“With necessary diversification, it is of course necessary to maintain imports of oil from the Russian Federation and I believe we will find common ground with the U.S. administration, which is gradually creating pressure in the opposite direction,” Fico said. Late on Wednesday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban held a phone call with Trump, when energy security in central Europe was one of the topics of conversation.
Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said that Hungary’s energy supply cannot be guaranteed without Russian gas and oil imports.
(Reporting by Jason Hovet in Prague; editing by Barbara Lewis)