Zelensky announces new ‘Carpathian Eight.’ Tusk and Vučić attend its first summit (but Fico doesn’t)

Filed 47m ago · Via Meduza · The Buffoon Desk

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Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Walter Baxter · CC BY-SA 2.0 · via Wikimedia Commons

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced a new regional grouping called the Carpathian Eight, aimed at cooperation on security, energy, logistics, and cross-border economic issues among Carpathian region states. Its first summit opened September 18 in Ukraine's Ivano-Frankivsk region with Poland's Donald Tusk, Serbia's Aleksandar Vučić, and Romania's Nicușor Dan attending.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who had said the day before he planned to visit Ukraine, was absent, with Slovakia represented only at a lower diplomatic level. Zelensky's office said about 550 business representatives were expected, along with a billion euros in investment and trade agreements to be signed.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

Announcing you'll attend and then sending a lower-level stand-in is a move every small town knows from its own committee meetings. The billion euros in deals sound impressive right up until you remember pledges made at a summit podium and money that actually shows up in an account are two different animals. Worth watching whether the Carpathian Eight becomes a real club or just a nice photo with an empty chair.

Source: Read the original at Meduza → Scored: Tango de Manzana · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

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