Photo: Dreamstime.com
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte said no to participate in the Russia-EU summit, if it takes place in the form of a meeting of Vladimir Putin with the leaders of EU countries, writes De Telegraaf.
Rutte noted that there was nothing against Putin's meeting with European Council President Charles Michel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. However, he himself will not attend the summit.
The NOS television channel states that Rutte's reluctance to attend the summit is related to the Malaysian case of Boeing. 192 Dutch citizens were killed in the plane crash.
The leaders of Lithuania and Latvia also spoke out against the Putin summit. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda called such a meeting “an attempt to secure a glass of honey by contact with a bear.”
Earlier, German Chancellor Angela Merkel proposed to hold an EU-Russia summit. Merkel's initiative was supported by French President Emmanuel Macron and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.