SLOVAKIA

Pursuant to a decision of the National Assembly of March 14, 2024, promulgated on March 19, 2024, on a proposal by the executive director of Bulgartransgaz EAD Vladimir Malinov the Management Board and the Supervisory Board of the company took the decision for carrying-out a public procurement in relation to the initiative of the gas transmission operators of Bulgaria, Greece, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Ukraine and Moldova for the Vertical Corridor.

Plans to expand the capacity of the IGB interconnector to 5 billion cubic meters per year will be of great importance to be able to transfer 10 billion cubic meters per year of LNG from the terminals in Greece and Caspian gas through the Southern Gas Corridor, reaching Moldova, Ukraine, Hungary and Slovakia.

In Azerbaijan, the regime is liberalized in proportion to the quantities of gas that have to travel to Europe – there is an obvious correlation and it is positive. The country is valuable to Europe for five reasons. These are:

- natural gas;

- Azerbaijan's huge potential to produce green energy to be imported to Europe - Azerbaijan has the ability to produce wind energy around the clock;

Four EU countries are setting up a working group for the project to boost Azerbaijani gas imports, Slovakian Ministry of Economy told Trend.

Slovakia, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria have asked the European Commission to allocate funds for developing infrastructure to get additional natural gas from Azerbaijan. It is about developing the existing infrastructure, construction of new interconnectors and expanding the capacity of the existing ones.

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev has received a delegation led by Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic Ivan Korcok.

Minister of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic Ivan Korcok noted that he last visited Baku about 20 years ago, adding that the development processes he saw in the capital city left deep impressions on him.

Slovakia's Minister of Foreign Affairs and President-in-Office of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) - Miroslav Lajčák met with the Co-Chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group.

According to a statement, made by the Slovak Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the meeting was also attended by the personal representative of the current OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Andrzej Kaspšik.