US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to embark on a two-day trip starting Sunday aimed at strengthening ties with Slovakia and Hungary, whose conservative leadership has enjoyed cordial relations with President Donald Trump despite recurring disputes with other EU countries.
The US State Department announced that the visit will focus on energy cooperation and other bilateral issues, including NATO commitments. Rubio told reporters that the two countries are “cooperating greatly” with the United States, and that this tour gives him the opportunity to visit two countries that he has not visited before.
In Bratislava on Sunday, Rubio will meet with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who visited Trump in Florida last month, after the American diplomat participated in the Munich Security Conference in recent days.
On Monday, Rubio is expected to meet with Hungarian leader Viktor Orban, who is facing electoral pressure ahead of a scheduled election in April, amid opinion poll results that are not in his favor. Rubio confirmed that Trump “strongly supports” him, noting that the meeting falls within the framework of a bilateral visit.
Orban is considered one of Trump’s closest allies in Europe, and his immigration policies are presented as a model for part of the American far-right. Budapest has also hosted the Conservative Political Action Conference several times, and a new conference is scheduled to be organized in March.
The talks will include Russia, as Fico and Orban have maintained relations with Moscow, criticized and at times delayed the sanctions imposed by the European Union on Russia, and refused to send military aid to Ukraine. While other European countries turned to alternative sources of energy, including buying American gas, Slovakia and Hungary continued to buy Russian gas and oil, which was criticized by the United States. Rubio explained that this issue will be discussed during the tour, without going into details.
Regarding NATO, the text noted that Slovakia and Hungary had increased their defense spending to the alliance’s minimum, 2% of GDP. However, Fico currently refuses to raise it above that level, while Trump is demanding that NATO countries’ spending be raised to 5%, and Hungary has allocated 2% in this year’s budget.
In the context of nuclear cooperation, Slovakia signed an agreement with the United States last month, and Fico announced that Westinghouse was a candidate to build a new nuclear power plant. He also expressed openness to the participation of additional companies after his meeting with the CEO of the French company Framatome.
