PM Modi arrives in Slovakia, says his visit will deepen bilateral relations and explore new avenues of cooperation

Bratislava, June 15 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia, on Sunday evening for an official two-day State visit to the European country and said that this visit provides an opportunity to deepen India-Slovakia relations and explore new avenues of cooperation between the two countries.

Prime Minister Modi also added that he is “looking forward to productive meetings with Slovakia’s President Peter Pellegrini and Prime Minister Robert Fico”.

Taking to his official X account, Prime Minister Modi wrote: “Reached Bratislava. This visit provides an opportunity to deepen India-Slovakia relations and explore new avenues of cooperation. Looking forward to productive meetings with President Pellegrini and Prime Minister Fico.”

As Prime Minister Narendra Modi arrived in Bratislava on Sunday evening after completing the first leg of his visit to Nice in France.

A ceremonial welcome will be accorded to the Prime Minister Modi on Monday morning. The Indian diaspora in the Slovakia is highly excited about the maiden visit of an Indian Prime Minister to the country.

On the second leg of his visit, at the invitation of the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, Prime Minister Modi is on a two-day State Visit to the Slovakia till June 16.

This will be the first-ever visit by an Indian Prime Minister to Slovakia since its Independence in 1993.

The visit by PM Modi follows President Droupadi Murmu’s State Visit to Slovakia in April 2025 and Slovak President Peter Pellegrini’s visit to India for the AI Impact Summit in February 2026.

Prime Minister Modi will hold talks with his Slovak counterpart Fico, and explore new avenues of cooperation.

Prime Minister Modi will also meet Slovak President Pellegrini. The visit will reaffirm India’s commitment towards strengthening its bilateral relationship with Slovakia in various sectors, including trade, investment, and automobile and railway manufacturing.

The numbers animating this visit by Prime Minister Modi are striking. Bilateral trade, which crossed the $1 billion mark for the first time in 2024 at $1.3 billion, climbed further to $1.8 billion in 2025, steered by Indian exports of $1.52 billion against imports of $284 million. These are not the figures of a peripheral relationship.

Slovakia’s welcome of the finalised India-EU Free Trade Agreement adds another dimension. President Pellegrini has publicly hailed the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) as a strong signal of strategic unity and an opportunity to boost economies and diversify supply chains. For Indian businesses, Slovakia’s position as a manufacturing hub at the heart of the EU single market makes it an attractive gateway into Europe.

Prime Minister Modi’s agenda in Bratislava is expected to yield agreements across several forward-looking sectors. In defence, an MoU has been in place since 1995, but the relationship has taken on new energy recently, with Indian companies signing agreements with Slovak defence firms for joint manufacture in artillery and armoured systems. Slovak firearm manufacturer Grand Power is in the process of setting up a subsidiary near Coimbatore — a concrete signal of two-way industrial intent.

In digital technologies, negotiations are underway between India’s Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology and Slovakia’s corresponding ministry. A separate agreement on cybersecurity and post-quantum technologies is being discussed between C-DOT and Slovakia’s Critical Infrastructure Association. Space cooperation has also had its moments: Slovakia’s first satellite was launched aboard an Indian PSLV rocket from Sriharikota in June 2017, and the two countries’ space agencies remain in contact over future collaborations.

Slovakia has shown up for India in moments that mattered. During Operation Ganga in 2022, as Indian students fled Ukraine following the Russian invasion, Slovakia facilitated the evacuation of 1,113 Indian nationals and two foreign nationals. More recently, President Pellegrini and the Slovak Foreign Ministry formally condemned the Pahalgam terrorist attack, with Pellegrini expressing personal solidarity with the Indian people. Slovakia has also consistently backed India’s bid for a permanent seat on the UN Security Council.

People-to-people ties add texture to the official relationship. The Indian community in Slovakia has grown to around 11,000, spread across several cities, with roughly 500 students enrolled at universities in Bratislava, Kosice and Nitra, pursuing medicine, engineering and business. Six Indian cultural troupes performed across Slovakia last year. The first-ever translation of the Upanishads from Sanskrit into Slovak was significant enough to be mentioned on Prime Minister Modi’s Mann ki Baat.

A first Prime Ministerial visit after 33 years of diplomatic relations could easily be dismissed as ceremony catching up with reality. But the breadth of what is expected to be signed – agreements in defence, digital technologies, and mobility of skills and talent – suggests this visit is less about optics and more about architecture: building the institutional framework for a relationship that both sides clearly believe has more to give.

For India, deepening ties with EU member states has taken on renewed urgency with the India-EU FTA in sight. Slovakia, small in geography but strategically placed and industrially capable, is emerging as a more consequential partner than its size might suggest.

–IANS

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