Bratislava, February 24 - Speaking on Slovakia's state-run television STV politics show 'O 5 Minut 12' (Five Minutes to Twelve) on Sunday, Prime Minister Robert Fico compared Kosovo's declared separation from Serbia on February 17 to the 1938 Munich Agreement.

"Historians liken the events in Serbia to those in Munich in 1938 or to the Vienna Arbitration," said the premier, expressing much the same view as his coalition partner, Slovak National Party (SNS) chairman Jan Slota.

Fico added that Slovakia has no other option but to point verbally to the fact that a unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo contravenes international law.

Until this issue is resolved, Slovakia won't recognise Kosovo as a state, he added.

Referring to the four-month period that Slovak Foreign Minister Jan Kubis said is necessary for Slovakia to consider recognising Kosovo, Fico stressed that this doesn't mean that the country will automatically acknowledge Kosovo's independence when the given period expires.

Fico also said that Slovakia has the right to its own stance, and shares the same view on Kosovo with several other EU-member states, including Spain.

[The Munich Agreement, signed by Germany, France, Britain and Italy in Munich in 1938, paved the way for Germany's annexation of the Czechoslovak Sudetenland in the same year.
Under the First Vienna Arbitration (1938), which came as a direct consequence of the Munich Agreement, territory in southern Slovakia that was home to a high proportion of ethnic Hungarians was transferred to Hungary. - ed. note].

(STV)

Illustration photo: Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Robert Fico.