The KDH Foreign Commission, led by MEP Miriam Lexmann, assesses foreign policy developments in 2021.Like at home, the global situation is significantly affected by the ongoing pandemic and its impacts on the economic and social situation in individual countries.

For all of us, the priority is naturally to manage it. Slovak foreign policy is mainly shaped in the context of our membership of the EU and NATO. We welcome the fact that the current government has brought greater reliability and readability in this context. We consider V4 to be an important tool with greater potential to advance our interests both within and outside the EU. We also take a positive view of this government's commitment to a value and principled foreign policy. KDH particularly appreciates the following three lines of dialogue on the international stage: The first is the Conference on the Future of Europe, where we want to jointly seek solutions within the EU to the current internal challenges of the EU and its geopolitical role. The second is the debate initiated by Pope Francis about the place and operation of Christians in the contemporary world, which is part of the synod. The third is the Summit for Democracy, which aims to defend and promote freedom and democracy in the world in the face of the growing assertiveness of totalitarian regimes . KDH particularly appreciates the fulfilment of the promise made in the government's programme statement, which is the establishment of the Office of the Plenipotentiary for the Protection of Freedom of Religion or Belief. The promotion of religious freedom in the world is one of the answers to tackling serious geopolitical challenges, including migration, which requires a comprehensive approach, particularly in the countries of origin. We agree with the emphasis on the human rights dimension of our foreign policy brought about by this government, as well as the recent establishment of an ambassador with a special mission for human rights at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic. Since a principled human rights stance in foreign policy has always been crucial for KDH, we condemn the sanctions imposed by the People's Republic of China on our MEP Miriam Lexmann for promoting a value policy towards China. We stress the greater need to turn our attention to the increasingly assertive behaviour of authoritarian and totalitarian regimes in the world. In this context, KDH welcomes the adoption of both strategies: security and defence. Concrete steps also need to be taken to make the Foreign Investment Screening Mechanism obranu.SR more effective tool for our obranu.SR not have a principled attitude towards the Kremlin's actions for many years, and we can now see that, as a result of the ambiguous attitude of previous governments in Slovakia, and unfortunately even today in several EU Member States, threats from the Kremlin are escalating. We clearly consider the way U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan to be a failure. However, it should also be added that nato's mission in Afghanistan itself, of which we were part, has had a fundamental security contribution to Europe. Important international events for Slovakia in 2021 A significant moment of this year was the visit of St. Father František, which we managed excellently from an organizational point of view with a worldwide resonance. He came to unite us and reinforce the message that Christian values have not lost their meaning, and Slovakia is still the hope for Europe that St. John Paul II has put into it today. He naturally addressed his message to the whole of Europe and to the world. Steps to increase economic cooperation with Taiwan, which is already an important investor in Slovakia, must also be evaluated positively. According to KDH, it is essential for our security to reduce economic dependence on China. Especially in key sectors where Taiwan is a natural partner for us. From a safety point of view, we consider the completion of nord stream 2, which Slovakia criticised at its beginnings, to be very negative. The current energy crisis, in the context of the Kremlin's hybrid war and its close regimes towards the West, as well as the escalation of the conflict against Ukraine, highlights the risk of the fatal impact of this pipeline on our security. Evaluation of Slovakia's relations with other countriesSo neighbours, we have friendly relations by default, which fortunately cannot disrupt the occasional escapades of some representatives of our government, as we saw, for example, in the case of the scandal of former Prime Minister I. Matovič due to an inappropriate prank in relation to Ukraine.We are encouraged by internal political developments in the Czech Republic after the elections. We naturally see the new Czech Government as the closest ally. We take a positive view of our clear definition of Hungary's activity to buy Slovak soil and the subsequent cessation of the Hungarian procedure in this matter. However, in relation to Hungary, the regrettable foreign policy double-track is due to the attitudes of some representatives of the current governing coalition. Our relations with EU countries have developed very well, including key players such as Germany