V4 Alliance at Risk if Slovakia Refuses to Distance Itself from Moscow

The Visegrád Four regional alliance — grouping Slovakia, Czech Republic, Poland, and Hungary — risks being reduced to little more than a forum for business discussions if Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico continues to maintain close ties with Moscow, political analysts warn. Fico, who leads the ruling Smer-SD party and has positioned himself as a skeptic of Western military support for Ukraine, has increasingly diverged from the positions of Poland and Czech Republic, which have been among the most vocal supporters of Ukraine within Central Europe. The V4, founded in 1991 to coordinate political and economic cooperation among four former Eastern Bloc countries, has been strained by Slovakia's and Hungary's more conciliatory stance toward Russia. Critics argue that without a shared security and foreign policy vision, the grouping loses its strategic significance and becomes, at best, a platform for investment talks rather than a meaningful geopolitical force.