Slovakia wants to normalise relations with Russia, ramping up gas imports, PM Fico says

(Reuters) -Slovakia wants to normalise its relations with Moscow and is increasing imports of Russian gas through the TurkStream pipeline, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico told Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

The comments clashed with the position of the European Union, which is seeking to wean itself off Russian energy imports to punish Moscow over its 2022 invasion of Ukraine, and come at a critical phase in efforts to end the conflict.

Populist-led Slovakia and Hungary - both EU members - have sought to maintain political ties with Russia, which supplies the majority of their oil needs.

"I want to say openly that we are extremely interested in standardisation of relations between the Slovak Republic and the Russian Federation," Fico said during the meeting with Putin on the sidelines of China's World War Two anniversary celebrations in Beijing.

"Let's get back to what used to be typical for countries when it comes to economic cooperation," he added.

The EU has vowed to end its decades-old energy relations with former top gas supplier Moscow and is aiming to phase out all Russian energy imports by the end of 2027.

Hungary and Slovakia, however, oppose the plan, arguing that switching to alternatives would increase energy prices.

"I want to thank you for the safe and regular gas supplies that we receive through TurkStream," Fico told Putin as the two met.

TurkStream remains the only pipeline carrying Russian gas to Europe after blasts stopped exports via the Nord Stream 1 pipelines in September 2022 and as transit via Ukraine was halted on January 1.

Slovakia has so far this year imported about 1.7 billion cubic metres of gas through Hungary, which is its most direct link to the TurkStream pipeline, according to data from Slovak transit company EUstream.

A project is currently under way to increase the cross-border capacity for gas flow from Hungary to Slovakia, including gas originating from the Turkstream pipeline, to 4.4 bcm from 3.5 bcm.

Fico, meanwhile, said Slovakia had restarted issuing visas to Russian citizens, a service that was suspended following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

He said Slovakia was also interested in Russian companies potentially participating in a new nuclear power plant, a project the government aims to grant to U.S. firm Westinghouse.

Fico will meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Friday in the western Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod, he said. That meeting had previously been scheduled to take place in eastern Slovakia.

The prime minister said he planned to raise the issue of recent Ukrainian attacks, which temporarily stopped Russian oil flows through the Druzhba pipeline to Slovakia and Hungary in the last two weeks.

(Reporting by Jan Lopatka in Prague;Editing by Bernadette Baum and Joe Bavier)