Slovakia and Russia May Intensify Co-Operation in Nuclear Energy

Friday, September 12, 2008

Slovakia and Russia may intensify their mutual co-operation mainly in the field of nuclear energy, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico and Russian government vice-chairman Igor Setchin agreed at their working lunch in Bratislava.

"I believe that the Italian company Enel will launch the completion of the construction of the 3rd and 4th blocks in the Mochovce nuclear power plant, and that Russian technology suppliers will be asked to co-operate (in this project)," said Fico.

[The 3rd block is planned to go into production in 2012. The launch of 4th bloch is planned six month later. However, Enel informed it is possible to finish the work earlier. - ed.]

According to Fico, the talks with Setchin focused not only on the economy but also on culture and education. The politicians also proposed quarterly meetings of the intergovernmental Slovak-Russian commission, which now meets twice a year.

Slovak Transportation Minister Lubomir Vazny, who also took part at the lunch, informed the group about the feasibility study on extending the wider train tracks used in Russia into Slovakia.

According to Setchin, it would be interesting for Slovakia to introduce these tracks as the volume of goods from Russia to Slovakia may be increased via this transportation channel. "We'll work on its (the project's) solution," said Setchin.

(TASR)

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