SaS and Centre-right Bloc Call on Fico to Explain Goals of his Visit to China

Bratislava, September 24 (TASR) - Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) should present clearly the stances to communicate and goals he plans to achieve during his upcoming visit to China, opposition's SaS party together with non-parliamentary parties Forum, ODS and Blues-ES, affiliated under the Centre-right Bloc initiative, declared on Tuesday. "Robert Fico plans to go to China and negotiate various investment projects for Slovakia, which can really be potentially dangerous for the Slovak economy, Slovak security and foreign policy," MP Juraj Krupa (SaS) stated at a press conference. Krupa is not opposed to the development of trade ties with China on principle. Any cooperation with this country, however, calls for taking Slovakia's interests into account and Krupa warned that as an EU and NATO member Slovakia doesn't share the same security interests as China. Collaboration with Chinese investors brings not only trade opportunities but carries also risks and dangers. "Hungary has borrowed one billion euros under opaque conditions. In addition, it has had to let in Chinese police to its soil, which pursues its own interests and exerts direct control over Chinese minority in Hungary. All EU and NATO countries have recorded in their reports the danger of growing activities of Chinese intelligence services in their territories," he said. SaS together with representatives of the Centre-right Bloc demand that Parliament passes a resolution to bind Fico not to sign a "strange contract on investments of the same kind as Hungary's" in China. The Slovak Prime Minister is slated to visit China in late October-early November. In the summer, Fico announced that he will discuss Chinese investment into a battery factory in Surany and a pumped-storage hydroelectric facility on the Ipel River. mf