Russian President Vladimir Putin will meet Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico in China in the coming days, the Kremlin said Sunday, talks that will likely further strain tensions between Bratislava and Brussels.
Fico is one of the few EU leaders to have maintained regular contact with Putin since Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov told reporters that a meeting between the pair was “planned,” without providing details of what they would discuss or when exactly they would meet.
Fico is to travel to Beijing for Wednesday's parade marking the end of the Asian theater of World War II.
Putin is in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin for a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit and is due to sit next to Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Beijing parade.
Fico has irked European leaders by criticising the bloc's support for Ukraine and pushing back against efforts to cut energy imports from Russia.
Slovakia is heavily reliant on Russian gas.
In May, he defied Brussels by travelling to Moscow for Putin's Victory Day parade on Red Square.
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