Among the 56 businesses accompanying Fico on the trip, several are active in sectors considered sensitive or strategically important. The delegation included, among others, companies related to nuclear energy, defense, semiconductors, telecommunications, cybersecurity, or artificial intelligence. These are also some of the fields in which Slovakia and China pledged to deepen research cooperation, which would lead to increased exposure of Slovak academia to China. Meanwhile, the appetite to implement a robust research security framework has all but stalled.
In light of the Slovak government’s decision to move forward with the construction of a new nuclear reactor, the presence of the Slovak Nuclear Energy Company (Jadrová energetická spoločnosť Slovenska, or JESS) is of concern. JESS is a semi-state-owned company tasked with the construction of new nuclear power plants in Slovakia. It is a joint venture between state-owned enterprise JAVYS and ČEZ Group, a Czech semi-state-owned energy company. While the government has publicly expressed interest in working with South Korean technology suppliers, the project’s details – including its financing – remain murky for now.
Given Fico’s openness to work with Chinese companies on various other infrastructure projects, we need to ask what the purpose of JESS’s participation in the business delegation was, and whether it is considering using Chinese financing for the project of the new nuclear plant.
Another highly problematic agreement was a cooperation and content-sharing deal signed by TASR, a public press agency, and China Media Group, a national media house under the direct control of the Chinese Communist Party Propaganda Department. As TASR is used as a source for basic news reporting by a majority of Slovak media, this deal exposes a large share of the Slovak media space to the potential spreading of propaganda and disinformation, especially when it comes to reporting about China itself, or issues that China would consider its own core interests.
Future Prospects
Overall, Fico’s approach to China is largely a departure from the pre-existing approach, which tended to follow the European Union’s policy of seeing China simultaneously as a partner, competitor, and systemic rival. This was enshrined also in the 2021 National Security Strategy, a document that viewed China largely through the prism of economic security: “China is significantly increasing its power potential and political influence underpinned by rapidly growing military capabilities, which, combined with economic power and strategic investments, it is assertively using to advance its interests.”
Fico’s trip to China and his views of the country form quite a contrast with this.
As noted by Chinese scholar Wang Hongyi in the Global Times, “strategic proximity between China and Slovakia has a demonstrative effect on shaping a healthy, de-ideologized and de-geopoliticized relationship between China and Europe.” Having Slovakia as another friendly voice in Europe can be helpful; even if Bratislava is a minor and increasingly isolated actor, it is still able to wield veto power in key foreign and security policy decisions on the EU and NATO levels.
Is China thus gaining another Viktor Orbán in Fico? It might be too soon to tell.
So far, Fico has been more reserved on the European stage, and has tried to avoid putting himself in the same ostracized position as the Hungarian prime minister. This position started to crack, though, during the discussions on countervailing duties against China-made electric vehicles. Fico explicitly went against the European mainstream thinking and vocally condemned the EU Commission for “starting a trade war with China.”
As Fico sees more benefits from engaging China, both from the perspective of burnishing his domestic credentials as a proponent of “sovereign” Slovak foreign policy and a successful agent for Slovak economic interests, he might lean even more toward Beijing.
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Publish date : 2024-11-15 03:18:00
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