Slovak-Ukrainian Border

The article deals with the areas of Ukrainian-Slovak relations, in which changes took place under the influence of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement provisions and the tendencies in the development of the bilateral relations in new institutional and geopolitical conditions. The conclusion is made that institutional environment between Kyiv and Brussels, which began to form in 2014 with the beginning of the signing of the Аssocaition Agreeement has the significant inuence on the development of bilateral diplomatic, economic, trade relations, migration trends of Ukrainian citizens to Slovakia. More attention has to be paid to the practical convergence of socioeconomic development of border territories and the stimulation of the cross-border practices of local communities, the support of business and public bilateral initiatives and projects.

Eastern and Central European politicians, diplomats, and analysts have to get real about the security implications of their states’ geographic location. They need to coordinate far more intensely on their policies toward and with their eastern neighbors (perhaps, with support from other interested EU countries). Doing everything to make the current post-Soviet “grey zone” less grey is in the core national interest of NATO’s new eastern member states.