The only leader in the EU participating in the parade organized by Xi Jinping in Beijing, meeting with Vladimir Putin. What they discussed
Russian President Vladimir Putin (right) listens to the Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, during their meeting at the Diaoyutai state -of -the -wing house in Beijing, China. Photo: Vladimir Smirnov / AP / Profimedia
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico had a meeting with Russian leader Vladimir Putin in Beijing on Tuesday. The Russian press has published images from the beginning of the discussions between the two leaders, during the four -day visit that Putin performs in the capital of China, notes Ukrainska Pravda. Fico is the only head of government of a member country of the European Union present in Beijing.
The Russian news agency Ria Novosti reported that the discussion started with Fico asking Putin how it feels. “If they are alive, it's already good enough,” the Kremlin leader replied.
In addition to him, the President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has already had a meeting, and the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, intends to do the same.
Robert Fico said that, after the discussions with Putin and the return to Slovakia, he will meet with the President of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski.
Fico, which runs a NATO and EU member country, but opposed Western sanctions against Russia, has had tense relations with Zelenski and has distanced from European allies. In December, he met Putin in Moscow.
Fico will also be the only leader of a country in the European Union that will participate in Beijing ceremonies, where XI will be flanked by Putin, but also by leaders in North Korea, Iran and Myanmar, in a demonstration of solidarity against the West.
“I respect every victim of the struggle against fascism, which is why I leaned with respect, in the past, to Moscow, Normandia or Washington,” Fico said in a statement sent a day ago, according to Reuters.
Fico and Vučić were the only European leaders, at the level of heads of state, present with Vladimir Putin at the May 9 parade.
“Personal regret and I admit that I do not understand why, among the EU countries, only Slovakia will be present in Beijing. A new world order is built, new rules of a multipolar world, a new balance of powers, extremely important for the stability of the world.”
The President of China Xi Jinping will mark the 80th anniversary of Japan's defeat on Wednesday in World War II with a lavish military parade.
