Economics
Slovak Premier Meets Putin Before Hosting EU Leaders at Home
- Slovakia holds EU presidency, Fico to host summit in September
- Fico has condemned sanction against Russia as “absurd”
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Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, one of the European Union’s most outspoken critics of sanctions against Russia, held talks with President Vladimir Putin ahead of a meeting with Angela Merkel and the leaders of ex-communist members of the bloc on Friday.
“Today we’ll work with you as a chairman of the European Council in order to improve, in particular, our trade and economic ties with Europe,” Putin told Fico at the beginning of the meeting, which started at about 10:35 p.m. Thursday in Moscow. Positive Slovak-Russian ties “give us all possibilities to return” economic relations to previous levels, Fico responded. He has said he plans to discuss “big energy projects” with Putin.