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Most Western leaders have chosen not to attend China's Victory Day parade. The two leaders who did, Slovakia's Robert Fico and Serbia's Aleksandar Vučić, are no strangers to controversy, but they have very different reasons for attending.
Both attended the Victory Day parade in Russia last May and both met with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Beijing, just as they did in Moscow.
But Vucic's Serbia, although a candidate for EU membership, has cultivated close economic ties with China and he has tried to pursue a neutral course with Russia, despite condemning its war in Ukraine, writes the British BBC.
Fico is in a very different position. His country is a member of both the EU and NATO, yet he has called for normalization of relations with Russia.
While the EU wants a ban on Russian oil and gas imports by the end of 2027, Fico wants to increase his supplies of Russian energy, and Ukraine has tried to cut off the pipeline that supplies it.
Putin may praise the Slovak leader for his “independent foreign policy,” but Slovakia’s European allies don’t quite see it that way.
When asked whether Fico was representing the EU in Beijing, a European Commission spokeswoman answered firmly "no," emphasizing that China was a "main motivator" of Russia's large-scale war in Ukraine.
His opponents at home accuse him of serving Russian propaganda and betraying his country. Fico claims he is in Beijing "while a new world order is being formed" and says he has reached several conclusions after his talks with Putin and has a "serious message" for Zelensky when they meet on Friday.
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