Robert Fico will deliver a message from Zelensky to the Russian president during his meeting with Putin and may also hear Putin’s opinion on ending the conflict, the Slovak Foreign Ministry announced. The Slovak prime minister will visit Russia on May 9.
“He may also receive valuable information from the Russian president on his assessment of efforts to end the conflict“, said State Secretary of the Foreign Ministry Rastislav Khovanec at a meeting of the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee.
Khovanec added that it is now essential to maintain contact with all parties and that European politicians should be interested in participating in the negotiations that will lead to a peace agreement. He noted that a number of leaders, including from European countries, have already started preparing the ground for discussions with the Russian president on this issue. Zelensky and Fico met previously at the Yerevan summit in early May.
Fico will fly to Moscow on May 9. He plans to lay flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and meet with Putin. The Slovak prime minister does not plan to participate in the Victory Day parade on Red Square.
Fico and Putin last met in September last year. At that time, Slovak Prime Minister Fico said that Bratislava reacted “very sharply“ to the attacks on the “Družba“ oil pipeline, and the prime minister himself expressed a desire to raise the issue at a meeting with Zelensky.
Slovakia has criticized EU aid to Ukraine and Kiev itself after the “Družba“ oil pipeline incident. Russian oil supplies to Hungary and Slovakia via Ukraine have been disrupted, with Bratislava and Budapest announced the suspension of supplies for political blackmail by Kiev. Oil pipeline supplies were resumed in late April.
European Union countries “have the potential“ to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin, European Council President Antonio Costa said on Thursday at the European University Institute in Florence, quoted by the Financial Times.
“I am holding talks with the leaders of the 27 EU countries to determine the best way to organize our work and to understand what we should discuss with Russia when the time comes”, Costa said.
Costa noted that the EU does not intend to interfere in the US-led negotiations and has not yet seen any signs of Moscow's readiness for dialogue with Brussels.
According to the publication, the EU is concerned about the prolonged negotiations between the US, Russia and Ukraine, as well as the risk of being displaced in discussions on possible terms of a settlement.
Zelensky's office confirmed to the newspaper that they had discussed the issue with Costa, stressing that all contacts should reflect a unified position among European countries.
Despite calls from EU leaders for dialogue with the Russian president, there is no agreement among all 27 leaders on who exactly should speak on behalf of the bloc, when such an attempt should be made, or what specific proposals should be made to Putin, the media outlet reported.
In early February, French President Emmanuel Macron announced preparations for a technical dialogue with Moscow. Around the same time, his diplomatic adviser Emmanuel Bonne made a “quiet” visit to the Russian capital for talks with presidential aide Yuri Ushakov. In March, however, Russian President Dmitry Peskov's press secretary said that the conversation with the French diplomat “did not give any positive signals” regarding Ukraine.
Calls for normalization of relations with Moscow have recently been voiced by several other European politicians. In March, Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis expressed hope for the restoration of relations with Russia. He noted that relations between Russia and Switzerland date back two centuries and that his country had therefore “done everything to maintain these relations, despite the sanctions“.
The same month, former European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker also called for the normalization of relations between Europe and Russia. “Russia is our neighbor, as is Turkey, by the way. And in the long term, we need normalization of relations“, he said.
Belgian Prime Minister Bart de Wever called for the normalization of relations with Russia because of “cheap resources“, but later warned that normalization was out of the question while the conflict in Ukraine continued.
The Kremlin has repeatedly stated that Russia is open to dialogue. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin stressed that Europe “has no peace agenda“ and is “on the side of war“.