At the invitation of President Yoon Suk Yeol of the Republic of Korea, Prime Minister Robert Fico of the Slovak Republic paid an official visit to the ROK from September 29 to October 1, 2024, to discuss a wide range of issues and expand the strategic partnership between the two nations.
The summit agreed to establish a Strategic Partnership encompassing political, security, defense, economic, trade, scientific, medical, social, and cultural cooperation. In the political and security arena, the agreement to establish a regular political consultation between the two foreign ministers’ bodies at the Ministerial level to discuss bilateral, international, and other issues of mutual interest was signed. The two sides also agreed to strengthen cooperation in the UN, ASEM, ROK-EU relations, ROK-NATO relations, and other multilateral mechanisms.
In the economic and trade area, the agreement to make full use of the ROK-EU Free Trade Agreement (FTA) signed in July 2011 was discussed. The two sides also agreed to promote cooperation in areas such as artificial intelligence, e-sectors, green technology, robotics, autonomous systems, and defense industry.
The agreement also calls for strengthening cooperation to promote human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK). The two sides expressed deep concern about the on-going, systematic, widespread, and gross human rights violations in the DPRK and called for the immediate resolution of the issues of abductees, detainees, and unrepatriated prisoners of war.