Fico Heads to V4 Summit, Pledging to Avoid Divisive Issues

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico attended a summit of the Visegrad Four (V4) group, pledging that Slovakia would not raise topics that divide the four-nation bloc. The V4 is a regional alliance of four Central European countries — Slovakia, Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic — that coordinates on political and economic matters within the European Union. Fico, whose Smer-SD party leads a government often at odds with EU mainstream positions, signaled a conciliatory approach aimed at preserving unity within the grouping despite known differences on issues such as migration and the war in Ukraine.