Spanish
The European Commission considered this Friday that the meeting between the presidents of Russia, Vladimir Putin, and the U.S., Donald Trump in Budapest could be "something positive" if it leads to "a just and lasting peace for Ukraine", and indicated that there is no ban on entry into European territory for the Kremlin leader and that opening European airspace is a decision of each member state.
"Any meeting that promotes the process to achieve a just and lasting peace in Ukraine is welcome," said European spokesman Olof Gill during the daily press conference of the European Commission. "If things move in the direction I have mentioned, we would consider it something positive," he added.
Trump announced this Thursday that he will meet with his Russian counterpart in the Hungarian capital to try to end the war in Ukraine, although he did not specify the exact date. It will be the second meeting between the two leaders after the one they had on August 15 in Alaska.
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For its part, the Kremlin defended today the choice of Hungary, despite being a member of NATO and the European Union (EU), as the venue for the next summit. Gill added that "it's not always a straight and simple path, meetings don't always take place in the precise order or format we'd like, but if the meetings, regardless of how they unfold, bring us closer to a just and lasting peace for Ukraine, then we must welcome them with satisfaction." In 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Putin as a "suspected perpetrator" of the illegal deportation of Ukrainian children and their transfer from occupied areas in Ukraine to Russia, which constitutes a war crime according to the treaty of this court, the Rome Statute. From that moment on, Putin greatly limited his trips abroad, avoiding the countries that had ratified the Treaty of Rome, which was the origin of the ICC. Hungary, however, announced last March that it would begin its withdrawal from the international Court, which, following in Trump's footsteps, it accused of being "politically biased". On the other hand, the European External Affairs spokesperson, Anitta Hipper, indicated that there is no ban on entering the EU for the Russian president and his Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov. Hipper also pointed out that the decision to open the airspace to Russian aircraft is a decision of each member state. For his part, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met this Thursday in Washington with representatives of the American arms companies Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, which produce some of the military technologies that Zelenskyy will ask President Trump for, when the latter receives him this Friday at the White House.
