Slovak Premier Praises Chinese EV Battery Plant in Break With EU

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico hailed a decision by China’s Gotion High-Tech Co. to build a €1.2 billion ($1.4 billion) electric-car battery plant in his country even as ties between Beijing and the European Union grow increasingly tense.

“Our relationship with China is built on mutual respect for international law and the principle of non-interference in internal affairs,” Fico said at the ground-breaking ceremony in the southern town of Surany on Tuesday. He also criticized what he described as the “harmful effects of unrestrained liberalism” in Europe.