Slovak Prime Minister Fico addressed the rising military tensions with Russia and the need for communication to avoid unnecessary crises. Speaking at the Europe Council meeting yesterday in Brüssels, he declared: “We urgently need this channel. We are not talking about trade [relations with Russia] now, we are talking about [effective] communication [with the Russian side]. This is a big difference.”
A permanent communication channel between the EU and Russia would, according to him, help avoid an escalation of tensions in the event of incidents such as, for example, the unintentional violation of the community’s air borders by UAVs. Fico said: “A channel of communication [with Russia] is mandatory. It is important. In this, I support the President of the European Council [Antonio Costa]. With this step, he is moving the EU” towards negotiations with Russia. Slovakia, he repeated, is in favor of an early end to the conflict in Ukraine and is ready to contribute to this in every possible way.
On June 17, Bloomberg reported that one of Costa’s key advisors allegedly held two telephone conversations with a high-ranking Russian official close to the Russian President, causing fury among a number of EU countries. Subsequently, Costa’s office, as the Deutsche Presse-Agentur agency noted, confirmed the existence of contacts with Russia to open diplomatic channels. According to the European publication Politico, the contacts were without substantive exchange of views and without conducting negotiations.
