SLOVAKIA AND UKRAINE: No Reservations

During his one-day visit to Slovakia, Ukraine’s Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk signed with his Slovak counterpart Pavel Kanis an intergovernmental agreement on additional confidence-building and security measures for two countries. The ministers discussed in detail the problems of European security in the light NATO expansion, which Slovakia hopes to join, the Czech CTK new agency reports. Mr. Kanis noted that both countries had very similar intentions about cooperation with the North Atlantic alliance. In contrast to other former Soviet states, Ukraine is being considered by NATO from a “special position,” Mr. Kanis stressed. What also heartens the Slovak military establishment is the fact that Ukraine does not express any reservations concerning Slovakia’s possible membership in the alliance.

Gen. Kuzmuk also noted that a military and technical cooperation agreement might soon be signed with Slovakia. In his opinion, both Ukraine and Slovakia “have powerful potential of their military-industrial complexes.” And if Ukraine’s MIC potential is to be involved in the needed modernization of the Soviet- made weapons Slovakia has been armed with since the period of socialism, these weapons will serve another 10-15 years, Interfax-Ukraine reports.

The ministers also discussed the formation of a joint engineer battalion called Tisza, also with Rumanian and Hungarian military potential. The battalion’s mission will deal jointly with possible calamities in the Tisza basin situated on the four states’ territories. As CTK reports, this decision will be finalized in form document in November.