India-Slovakia Bilateral Relations

India-Slovakia Bilateral Relations

Political:

1.       India and Slovak  established relations in 1921 with a Czechoslovak Consulate in Bombay.  Modern relations began in 1993 after the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. Formerly part of Czechoslovakia, the Slovak Republic became an independent sovereign state on 01 January 1993. India recognized the new State immediately. An Indian Resident Mission in Bratislava was established in 1995. Slovakia also has its Mission in New Delhi. It also has Honorary Consuls in Mumbai, Kolkata and Bangalore.

2.       India – Slovakia relations are friendly and free from major bilateral issues. They also cooperate well in international fora. 

Bilateral Mechanism:

3.       The Indo-Slovak Protocol on Foreign Office Consultations (FoC) was signed in July 1994.  FOCs are expected to be held annually at the level of Deputy Minister or Head of Department, alternatively in New Delhi and Bratislava. So far, six FOCs have taken place The sixth round of FOC was held on February 10, 2023, in New Delhi at the level of Secretary (West) from our side and Director General for Political Affairs from Slovak side.

Important Visits/Meetings:

4.       The important visits/meetings from India to Slovakia were:

(I)       MoS, EA Shri R.L. Bhatia visited Slovakia in January 1993 soon after Slovakia became an independent Republic.
(ii)      President Shankar Dayal Sharma visited Slovakia in October 1996.
(iii)     Vice President Krishan Kant visited Slovakia in June 2000
(iv)MOS, EA,  Retd. Gen (Dr.) V.K. Singh visited Slovakia for GLOBSEC Security Forum from 15-17 April 2016. He held bilateral discussions with Slovak authorities and V4 FMs on the sidelines of this format.
(v)      MOS, EA, Shri M.J. Akbar visited Slovakia for GLOBSEC Forum 2018 from 15-18 May 2018. He held high-level meetings with Mr. Miroslav Lajcak, Minister of Foreign and European Affairs & 72nd President of the UNGA, Mr. Lukas Parizek, State Secretary in the Foreign Ministry, Mr. Richard Rasi, Deputy Prime Minister for Investment and Informatisation and Mr. Peter Gajdos, Minister of Defence of the Slovak Republic
(vi)     In November 2021 EAM Dr. S. Jaishankar had a brief meeting with the then FM Korčok on the margins of Sir Bani Yas Forum in UAE.
(vii)   EAM Dr. S. Jaishankar, visited Slovakia for GLOBSEC Bratislava Forum 2022 from 2-4 June 2022. Held bilateral discussion with  Ivan Korcok, FM of Slovakia. EAM also met H.E. Eduard Heger, Prime Minister of Slovakia, on the sidelines of the GLOBSEC Forum.
(viii)   EAM  Dr. S. Jaishankar met the FM of Slovakia,  Mr. Ratislav Káčer at Slavkov Format in Vienna, Austria on 2 January 2023.

5.       The important visits from Slovakia to India were:

(I)       A parliamentary delegation led by Chairman, Mr. Ivan Gasparovic visited India in 1993
(ii)      Slovak Prime Minister Jozef Moravcik visited India in July 1994
(iii)     President of the Slovak Republic, Dr. Ivan  Gasparovic paid first official visit to India in December 2004
(iv)     Mr. Miroslav Lajcak, Foreign and European Affairs Minister visited India as President-elect of the 72nd Session of UNGA and called on PM Modi and Smt. Sushama Swaraj, the then Minister of External Affairs on 28 August 2017;
(v)      State Secretary, Mr. Lukas Parízek visited India from 26-28 September 2017 and held meetings with the then MoS for External Affairs Retd. Gen (Dr.) V. K. Singh and MoS for Defence, Subhash Bhamre.
(vi)     H.E. Mr. Vojtech Ferencz, State Secretary, Ministry of Economy, Slovak Republic led a delegation to New Delhi for the 10th Session of the India-Slovakia Joint Economic Committee (JEC) meeting held on 13 February 2019. During his stay, he met with Mr. C. R. Chaudhary, Minister of State, Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India and other high ranking officials from FICCI, CII, and headquarters of TATA, etc.
(vii)    Mr. Vojtech Ferencz, State Secretary, Ministry of Economy participated in the 5th India-Europe 29 Business Forum (IE29BF) held on 20 – 21 November 2019 in New Delhi. During his stay, he held bilateral meetings with Mr. Pratap Chandra Sarangi, Minister of State, MSME, GOI.
(viii)   Mr. Lukáš Parízek, State Secretary in the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs participated in the 5th India-Europe 29 Business Forum held on 20 – 21 November 2019 in New Delhi. During his stay, he met with Mr. V. Muraleedharan, MoS, EA, GOI.
(ix) Slovak FM Rastislav Kacer visited India for Raisina Dialogue in 2023 from 2-4 March 2023. He had a bilateral meeting with EAM Dr. S. Jaishankar on the sidelines of Raisina Dialogue.
(x) Slovak Minister of Economy visited India in 27-29 March 2023 for Smart Cities India Expo 2023 held in New Delhi. He also had a bilateral meeting with Minister of Commerce, Shri Piyush Goyal. They discussed ways to further boost India-Slovakia commercial engagement through enhanced trade and investment ties.. He also met Mr. Narayan Rane Union Minister of MSME along with Mr. Bhanu Pratap Singh,  MoS, MSME. Both sides exchanged importance of MSME sector in their respective countries and also discussed on the potential areas of bilateral cooperation in this sector.

Economic Relations:

Trade:

6.      The trade relations between India and Slovakia are on a upswing. India as the 5th largest economy in the world represents a massive opportunity for Slovakia, as a leading manufacturer in the field of engineering and automobile production.

7.       According to Slovak Statistical Office data, in 2022, India’s import from Slovakia recorded a year-on-year increase of 10.2% to €153.7 million and India’s export to Slovakia rose by 57.5% to €558.2 million. Trade balance was in favour of India and reached €404.5 million. Total trade was €711.9 million during the year 2022. In the period January – June 2023 India’s import from Slovakia recorded a year-on-year increase of 39.3% to €99.2 million and India’s export to Slovakia rose by 12.1% to €283.4 million. Trade balance was in favour of India and reached €184.2 million. Total trade was €382.6 million in the first half of 2023. The bilateral trade figures for the last five years are:
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                Bilateral Trade (in € million)

8.       The major items of India’s export to Slovakia are footwear, part of footwear, garments, motor vehicle parts, tires, medicaments, seats, iron ores, electrical apparatus. Major items of import from Slovakia include motor vehicles, piston engines, machinery for working rubber or plastic, pumps, centrifuges, transmission shafts, measuring instruments, wire and cables, bearings.
Investment:

9.       Some of the major Indian investments in Slovakia are:

(i)       In January 2020, CK Birla Group through its company National Engineering Industries (NEI) acquired Slovakia-based Kinex Bearings. Kinex has an annual turnover of around €60 million, rich history in engineering and bearing production. It supplies products to over 80 countries and employs around 750 workers (7 Indians) in its two production plants in Slovakia (Bytca and Kysucke Nove Mesto) with a capability to produce bearings for railways, industrial segments and textile industry.
(ii)      Tata Motor’s Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) state-of-the-art automobile plant with an investment of €1.4 billion with annual manufacturing capacity of 150,000 vehicles started the construction in September 2016 and its operation began in October 2018.  The plant employs more than 4800 people (approx 200 Indians) and produces two models – Land Rover Discovery and Land Rover Defender.
(iii)     In 2017, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) opened branch in Bratislava. TCS is providing IT Services for Jaguar Land Rover in Nitra. TCS General Manager for Slovakia is based in Budapest, Hungary.
(iv)     In 2017, Dhoot Transmission, Aurangabad-based wiring harness manufacturer acquired TFC Cable Assemblies plant in Slovakia. TFC manufacture wiring harnesses, wiring looms, and cable assemblies for automotive industry.

10.Some of the important Slovak investments in India are:

(i)       Slovakian rail freight cars and bogies manufacturer Tatravagonka a.s., Poprad acquired a 26 percent stake in Jupiter Group, Kolkata in 2015. Tatravagonka is headquartered in Slovakia and is the leading designer and manufacturer of freight wagons in Europe with approximately 40 percent market share. Jupiter Group, which manufactures freight wagons, railway components and railway equipment has announced the acquisition of over 60 percent stake in Madhya Pradesh based company Commercial Engineers & Body Builders Co. Ltd. (CEBBCO) in February 2019.
(ii)      GMP Slovakia, s.r.o., a worldwide leader in the production of steel reels, drums, take aparts reels and handling equipments for the wire and cable industry has its main manufacturing plant located in Pribenik. Its second manufacturing plant, GMP Reels India, was founded in 2013 and is located in Nashik, Maharashtra.
(iii)     In 2020, Mr. Martin Kusik, former partner in the M/s Penta Investments s.r.o., Bratislava Group bought through his Czech company M/s Odyssey 44 a.s., Prague, a stake in M/s IDFC First Bank, Mumbai. As on June 2021, Odyssey 44 owned 3.68% shares of the Bank. 
(iv)    In October 2022, Slovak company Dajky s.r.o. established their branch in India. The company would do business in the filed of installations of artificial surfaces for cricket stadiums and training pitches, sports fields for schools and universities, as well as military training fields.
(v)      In March 2023, Zuari Industries Limited entered into definitive agreements with Envien International Limited of Envien Group, headquartered in Slovakia to jointly develop, construct own and operate a 150 kilo litre per day (KLPD) grain-based distillery in Uttar Pradesh and supply ethanol to oil marketing companies under the Ethanol Blending Programme of the Government of India. The distillery will be developed at Aira, Lakhimpur Kheri, UP and is expected to commence commercial operations by mid-2024. The distillery will provide direct and indirect employment to approximately 2000 people. The distillery is being implemented by Zuari Envien Bioenergy Pvt Ltd which will own and operate the project as a joint venture (JV) company. The JV will explore organic and inorganic growth prospects to scale up the production of ethanol to1000 KLPD in near future.

Joint Economic Committee:

11.     The Joint Economic Committee (JEC) mechanism was started in May 1995 to boost India-Slovakia commercial engagements.   The 11th session was held in Slovakia on 15 June 2023. The Co-chair of the JEC from Indian side was Shri Anant Swarup, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Commerce & Industry and Ms. Andrea Krajcikova, Director General, Section of Foreign Trade Policy and European Affairs, Ministry of Economy of Slovak Republic from Slovak side.  Wide ranging discussions on potential areas of collaboration such as trade & investment, Science & Technology, Defence, Agriculture & Irrigation, Auomotive and Engineering Industry were held. A goal was set to reach trade volume to €1 billion in the next 3 years with the preservation of proportional growth on both sides. The next session of JEC is due to be held in New Delhi in the year 2025.

Defence Cooperation:

12.     An MoU on defence cooperation was signed between the two sides in 1995. There is huge potential  between the two countries under defence cooperation since Slovak defence companies have competing capabilities comparable to Czech defence companies. Many Indian companies in the recent past have signed MoUs / agreements with Slovak defence companies for joint manufacture in the fields of Artillery / Armoured systems which could be explored further to boost our  defence exports.

13.     Indo-Slovak Defence Cooperation, however, continues to remain modest. So far, Defence Cooperation between the two countries has largely been equipment-centric. This is an area where both sides can deepen cooperation in this sector by upgrading the cooperation in Defence sector from the current format of ‘Buyer-Seller’ to ‘Joint Collaborator, Co-developer and Co-producer’.

Space Cooperation:

14.     India and Slovakia cooperate well in the Space sector. The first Slovak satellite (SKcube) was launched atop the Indian launcher PSLV-XL from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre on 23 June 2017.

15.     The first interaction between Slovak and the Indian space industry was during the World Expo Dubai in 2021. Slovak Space Office organized industry B2B meeting between Indian and Slovak delegations at the Slovak National Pavilion (11 organizations from India, including ISRO, and 15 organizations from Slovakia, including the Slovak Space Office). Another  interaction between the Slovak Space Office and ISRO was in the form of an online meeting on 28th January 2022, including representatives from ISRO (Director Office of International and Interagency Cooperation - OIIC, Programme Manager OIIC, ISRO Technical Liaison Officer – Indian Embassy in Paris). During these interactions, several mutually-interesting areas for potential future cooperation  were identified.

Multilateral:

16.     Both India and Slovakia cooperate well in international fora and have been, by and large, supportive of each other’s candidatures.

Cultural Relations:

17.       An Agreement on Cultural Exchange programme (2023-2026) has been signed between India and Slovakia on 4th March 2023. The agreement was signed by EAM Shri S. Jaishankar from Indian side and FM Mr. Rastislav Kacer from Slovak side during his visit to India for Raisina dialogue in 2023.

18.     The Embassy of India in Slovakia has time and again been organizing various cultural events in Bratislanva. Some of these events, in 2019, included ‘Asian Weekend’  celebrated in collaboration with Embassies of Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan, China, Korea and Bratislava Cultural and Information Center (BKIS), Indian Festival, 550th Guru Nanak Devji Jayanti celebrations, Bharat Ek Parichay, Day of Indian Cuisine and Gandhi@150 celebrations. In the year 2020, the events organized by Mission were conclusion of Gandhi@150,   Photography exhibition titled 'Life of Mahatma Gandhi' as part of celebration of 150th Birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, Painting competition  by the Slovak-Indian friendship society in cooperation with Embassy in Slovakian schools.  IDY 2023 was celebrated by the Mission on 18 June at the iconic Bratislava Castle.  

Indian Community:

19.     The NRI/OCI population in Slovakia is estimated to be around around 1670 (Source: Ministry of Interior, Government of Slovakia). Most OCIs [total around 50-60] are engaged in small businesses, such as groceries, garments and textiles, ethnic handicrafts and restaurants. NRIs on the other hand can be divided into two groups: the first consisting of  technically qualified IT and other professionals on short term assignments of 1-2 years, and the second group working as cooks  waiters, and masseurs/masseuses at Ayurvedic and other spas. There are about 600-700 students studying in Slovakia. The Embassy maintains regular contact and invites them during our National Days celebrations and other occasions.

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October 2023