Poland no longer considers Robert Fico’s planned flight to Moscow a problem. The change in attitude comes after the negative signal from Estonia and the Baltic countries.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski announced at a press conference on Monday that there is no longer a problem with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s trip to Moscow for the Victory Day over Fascism celebrations on May 9 through Poland. The Warsaw correspondent TASR informs about it.
- The Polish Minister of Foreign Affairs announced the end of the problem with Fico’s trip.
- Slovakia asked Poland for permission for the Prime Minister to fly to Moscow.
- Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia have refused or contested permission for Fico’s overflight.
“According to my current information, the problem has ceased to exist,” he told TASR. The PAP agency reported on Tuesday, April 21, that the Slovak side had asked Warsaw for permission to fly the Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic on his way to Moscow.
Problems with overflights
Earlier on Sunday, April 19, Estonia said that it would not allow Fico to fly over. The Slovak Prime Minister, in turn, informed that he will not receive permission from Lithuania and Latvia, even though the spokeswoman of the Lithuanian Department of Diplomacy, Kristina Belikova, later said that such a request had not even come from Slovakia.
The trip was also criticized by the state secretary of the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Marcin Bosacki. “It is hard to imagine that in the case of this particular event organized by a force that even now, in these weeks, months and days, is committing crimes against the civilian population in Ukraine, we would help Mr. Fico get there,” he told Polsat news television.
Alternative route of the Slovak prime minister
Due to the disapproval of the Baltic states, the Slovak prime minister already flew a government special plane on a longer, southern route through Hungary, Romania and over the Black Sea last year. In addition to participating in the celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, he also held bilateral negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping and leaders of other countries in Moscow.
NOTE: TASR will try to obtain the opinion of the Government Office of the Slovak Republic.
NOTE: TASR offers an audio recording for the report.
