Tomáš Taraba: Slovakia wants to sign a gas supply contract with Azerbaijan for at least 10 years — INTERVIEW

Deputy Prime Minister of Slovakia, Minister of Environment Tomáš Taraba arrived in Azerbaijan today to participate in the 13th session of the World Urban Forum 13. Using the WUF13 platform, the Deputy Prime Minister spoke in an interview with Report about the prospects for the development of relations between Baku and Bratislava aimed at strengthening cooperation.

How do you assess relations between Slovakia and Azerbaijan?

First of all, I would like to say that Slovakia and Azerbaijan enjoy excellent relations. A few months ago (in December 2025 - ed.), there was a very successful visit of the President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev to Slovakia. I can say that there are no unresolved issues between our countries.

I will have the opportunity during my visit to meet with the President of Azerbaijan. We are ready for cooperation. We are also very grateful to Azerbaijan for being a reliable and stable partner for us in the supply of oil and energy resources.

We are also pleased with Slovakia's participation in the reconstruction of Karabakh. Here we are actively drawing on Slovakia's extensive experience.

We have excellent experience in water management. In Slovakia, there is no water shortage, but we understand that this is a problem in other countries. Therefore, we also want to be useful to Azerbaijan in this regard.

How can Slovakia and Azerbaijan cooperate in urban development?

The urban environment of Baku is very attractive. I would like to emphasize that I like the fact that in Baku you maintain not only modern buildings, but also a unique combination with the preservation and reinterpretation of the old architectural style. And in my view, this is a great approach, because modernism alone can be copied by anyone, but a city only has a soul when it is connected to its history. And that is what I really like about your city.

And what about cooperation between Slovakia and Azerbaijan in the energy sector? Should we expect any agreements, and does Slovakia plan to conclude a long-term gas purchase contract with Azerbaijan?

We are discussing the conclusion of a long-term contract with Azerbaijan, for at least 10 years. Slovakia wants to diversify its energy supplies, and Azerbaijan is a very reliable partner for us. The only question is how to deliver energy resources to Central Europe. So it is not about whether we want to receive your energy resources, but how to get them delivered to Central Europe.

We are currently discussing which pipelines can be used and in what volumes. We are also grateful to Azerbaijan for the fact that during supply crises, for example from Ukraine a few months ago, your country was very active in ensuring supplies to our country.

Are new high-level visits from Slovakia to Azerbaijan expected? How is the overall dynamic of high-level meetings assessed?

Yes, in fact Slovakia is one of the countries most actively represented here in terms of state visits. Last week, the Speaker of the National Council was on an official visit to Azerbaijan. President Ilham Aliyev visited Slovakia a few months ago.

My visit to Azerbaijan is carried out on the instruction of the Prime Minister. The invitation (to participate in WUF13) was addressed to him, but unfortunately he has another schedule; otherwise he would definitely have been here. For us, Azerbaijan is a country with which we want to cooperate at a very high level.

Aydan Alasgarli, Kamil Mahmudov