NATO: Blanar Underlines Importance of Maintaining Contacts with Russia (2)

Brussels/Bratislava, December 4 (TASR-correspondent) - At a two-day summit of NATO foreign ministers in Brussels, Foreign and European Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) voiced Slovakia's support for what he sees as a group of allied countries calling for a peaceful solution to the Ukraine war and underlined the necessity to maintain contacts with Russia, TASR learnt from a special correspondent on Wednesday. Blanar claimed that the majority of NATO countries prefer a military solution to the conflict in the hope that more deliveries of military technologies and weapons might help Kiev defeat Russia and thus secure Ukraine a better position at subsequent negotiations. "However, there are other countries behind the table too and Slovakia belongs among them. I declared that soon, in February, it will be the third year of this war and it's become unequivocally clear that even despite the enormous effort of all Western partners, including the United States, absolutely no improvement in Ukraine's position has been accomplished," stated Blanar. Blanar underlined that no military solution to the conflict exists, which is why it's necessary to push for peace talks. "We welcome the stance of the new incoming US administration to initiate peace talks and put an end to the senseless killing without delay," he claimed. The foreign ministers also addressed NATO-Russia ties, which have cooled off since Russia's annexation of Crimea in February 2014. Blanar pointed out that the last talks between NATO and Russia were held in early 2022 and there have been no contacts ever since, even though the NATO summit in Washington in summer hinted at the need to revisit the strategy of cooperation with Moscow. "I presented Slovakia's view that the Russian Federation will always exist in our neighbourhood and that's why we must set up a dialogue with an outlook towards the post-war future, so as to preserve some communication channels with this nuclear power. We want this to be included in the new strategy," explained Blanar. The ministers discussed the revision of the 2015 strategy on hybrid threats, the development of which will be closely monitored by Slovakia. According to Blanar, contemporary hybrid threats come from "every side" and there is also a new type of threat that must be handled from the point of view of public communication. mf/mcs