Slovakia to continue defending multilateralism in foreign policy

Slovakia's foreign policy stands on three pillars: Europe, security, and multilateralism. This stems from the evaluation of the priorities of Slovakia's foreign policy in 2018 and its focus for this year, which the Cabinet approved on Wednesday. According to material prepared by the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, although Slovakia cannot ignore turbulent developments on the global scene, it can rely on good, stable, neighbourly relations. The material also states that the unified presentation of the country abroad remains an important part of foreign policy. This mostly refers to the visits by Parliamentary Chair and head of Slovak National Party (SNS) Andrej Danko to Russia, which the Foreign Ministry called rather non-standard. Andrej Danko stated on Wednesday that he was not planning to organise his working visits in accordance with Foreign Affairs Minister Miroslav Lajčák (a Smer-SD nominee). "I do not fall under Lajčák. If I decide tomorrow that I'll go to Honolulu then I will go," stated Danko, adding that he would continue visiting Russia as he wants Slovakia to have balanced relations with countries to the north, south, east and west.