CHANCELLOR of Germany Angela Merkel will meet President Andrej Kiska and Prime Minister Robert Fico on October 20.
Merkel will speak with Fico about bilateral relationships between Slovakia and Germany, joint cooperation and current issues of the European agenda. Fico said that he wants to speak with Merkel also about Ukrainian debt for gas since Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko stated that his country will probably need financial help from the EU to pay for gas from Russia. The Ukrainian debt for Russian gas supplier Gazprom is €4.15 billion, the TASR newswire reported.
“It is not so easy to gather money and pay for someone’s debt, I have a problem with this,” Fico stated in private to broadcaster TA3, as quoted by the SITA newswire. “There is possibility to help in form of a loan or something else and we are ready to help, but if [Ukraine] thinks that the EU will solve its problems it is wrong.”
Fico further said that there is hypocrisy involved in foreign politics.
“When Putin came to Milan it was like Michael Jackson’s was there,” Fico said as quoted by SITA, adding that everyone wanted sanctions against Russia but at the same time “they were shaking hands and taking pictures with him”.
Fico also said that a complete halt of gas supplies from Russia would cause problems to Europe and threaten Slovak economic growth but also Russian incomes. He again slammed sanctions saying that he has not seen anything that would solve the Ukraine crisis not even the Crimea situation but negative effects of them.
“We all condemned it [Crimea situation] but let’s be honest, Crimea is a finished thing,” Fico said in TA3. “Nobody opens Crimea [issue] today.”
(Source: TASR, SITA, TA3)
Compiled by Roman Cuprik from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
