Blanar in UN Holds Talks on Western Balkans and Humanitarian Aid for Ukraine

New York, September 24 (TASR-correspondent) - Slovakia will support more intensive cooperation with countries of the Western Balkans with the aim of accelerating the EU integration that they've been striving for for two decades, said Slovak Foreign Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) following his talks with ministers from the Friends of the Western Balkans informal grouping on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York on Monday (September 23), TASR has learnt from its special correspondent in New York. Blanar noted that this initiative has also helped to move Bosnia and Herzegovina closer to EU membership. EU-member states decided in March to open accession negotiations with this country. According to Blanar, the countries of the Western Balkans need to see real prospects of EU membership. At the same time, Blanar praised the approval of a new EU economic plan for Western Balkan countries amounting to €6 billion. However, it is also important for these countries to meet the pre-accession conditions, he stressed. On an initiative of Italy, the country presiding over the G7, and the USA, a meeting in the G7+ format dedicated to helping Ukraine in the area of energy was held on Monday. New Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha‎ provided information on the situation that Ukraine is currently in concerning the need for electricity. During the talks, Blanar spoke about Slovakia's willingness to help in the humanitarian field and in developing other joint projects that the Slovak and Ukrainian governments agreed upon at their second joint session in April. This primarily concerned expanding the interconnecting capacity of electricity networks. Blanar also stated that the third joint session of the Slovak and Ukrainian cabinets will be held on October 7. "Since the beginning of the year to date, based on commercial supplies, we've supplied Ukraine with more than 50 gigawatt hours of electricity in emergency mode based on commercial supplies, and we are currently also supplying Ukraine with almost 10 percent of its total diesel consumption from the Slovnaft refiner," said Blanar, confirming that Slovakia will also help Ukraine during the winter. ko/df