EU urgently needs diplomatic channel of communication with Russia — Fico

BRUSSELS, June 19. /TASS/. The European Union urgently needs a diplomatic channel of communication with Russia, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico stated to journalists following a meeting of the European Council.

"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," Fico said. 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.

"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]," said the Prime Minister. 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 DPA agency notes, confirmed the existence of contacts with Russia to open diplomatic channels — without substantive exchange of views and without conducting negotiations. According to the European publication Politico, the overwhelming majority of EU countries at the community summit in Brussels on June 18-19 spoke in favor of negotiations with Russia on the Ukrainian conflict, thereby supporting Costa.