March 02, 2007	Friday	Safar 12, 1428

BUDAPEST: Robert Fico, the charismatic Prime Minister of Slovakia, is shifting his country’s foreign policy into an unusual direction in this traditionally pro-US region.

After the collapse of state socialism, most of Central-Eastern Europe has ambitions of integration in Western institutions, and relations with the United States are generally more prioritised than in Western Europe.

That was also the case with Slovakia until Fico’s socialist Smer (Direction) Party won parliamentary elections in 2006 amidst growing discontent with the old right-wing government’s radical free-market policies.

The popular Prime Minister had also criticised the previous government for being overly favourable to Washington, and recently stressed the current cabinet “is a sovereign one and has its own opinion on foreign policy.”

The premier’s visits to China and Libya have, however, caused uproar in the right-wing opposition and media who are attacking Fico for allegedly endangering the country’s international reputation.

The opposition claims Slovakia’s foreign policy should be dictated by its membership in the European Union (EU) and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO). The government denies deviating from its Euro-Atlantic course.

While Poland and the Czech Republic make efforts to enhance their alliance to the United States by favouring a US military base in the region, Fico declared he would never allow such base on Slovak territory, sparking additional criticism.

The Prime Minister will also head to Russia in April to intensify relations with what Slovakia’s foreign ministry sees as a strategic partner of the EU.

“Fico is a controversial person, he is certainly no pro-American, but he can be considered pro-European,” Adam Libercan, an analyst at the Centre for European Policy in Bratislava told in an interview.

“The most controversial issue is that his first important visits have been to old allies of communist times, and not say the US, Germany or France,” Libercan said. But Slovakia’s choice of foreign partners was narrowed by last year’s events, when the Party of European Socialists suspended Smer’s membership and condemned it to relative international isolation.

The European Socialists were angered when Fico chose to form a coalition government with an extreme-right party.

In the West Fico only managed to be received in Portugal and Italy, but now he is hoping the situation will change in his favour, even if “he is governing in a coalition with the extremists.”

“The xenophobic, nationalist controversies of the past seem under control and he is not pursuing any policies that go against European socialism,” Libercan said.

In the meantime, the premier’s visit to China, with which Slovakia has a large trade imbalance, was dominated by economic pragmatism. Slovakia promised to provide China with a sound investment environment, while hoping China will absorb much of Slovak exports.

Fico did not raise human rights issues during his visit and, responding to domestic criticism, argued he just wants to benefit his own people by focusing on economic relations. Fico also reminded critics “the whole world goes to Libya and China.”

A few analysts pointed out Fico’s right-wing predecessors had also neglected human rights without suffering similar onslaughts from the media.

Still, on his visit to Libya Fico raised the issue of the Bulgarian nurses who have been sentenced to death for allegedly infecting 427 children with the HIV virus in a Libyan hospital.

The Slovak premier offered free treatment for HIV infected children in Slovakia, hoping Libya will make an accommodating gesture towards the nurses, a long-term demand of Western countries.

Slovak politicians fear Kosovo could set a dangerous example to its substantial Hungarian minority, even though Hungarian parties in Slovakia do not advocate secession.—Dawn/The IPS News Service