The results of this year's foreign policy will partly depend on how things are handled in Slovakia, stated Foreign Affairs Minister Ivan Korcok (a Freedom and Solidarity/SaS nominee) on Thursday. He sees the biggest challenge for citizens as learning to live with the pandemic. According to the minister, the challenge of the year will be to cope with the economic impacts of the pandemic, highlighting the recovery plan in this context. Foreign policy should serve the interests of Slovakia, stressed Korcok. It is always interconnected with internal events and cannot be spoken of separately. "I have a good feeling about the fact that the coalition has stuck together in foreign policy, although there were some difficult situations in 2021," said the minister.
Concerning terms of travel within the EU in the future, Korcok said that there is currently a debate on defining the validity of EU COVID passports. "Some countries say that their validity after receiving the last shot should be significantly shortened. We say it should be nine months, while some countries want to reduce it to six months," he said, adding he would wish for more cooperation within the EU on this issue. Korcok sees another challenge for Slovakia in increasing the population's vaccination "so that we can catch up with other countries".
Source: TASR
