Caputova at Beginning of Council of Europe Summit in Iceland: We're in Good Club

Reykjavik, May 17 (TASR-correspondent) - The Council of Europe (CoE) summit, at which Slovakia is being represented by President Zuzana Caputova, officially began in the Iceland's capital Reykjavik early on Tuesday evening. The Slovak head of state arrived at the Harpa conference centre, the venue of the summit, shortly after 5 p.m. local time and was welcomed by Iceland's Prime Minister Katrin Jakobsdottir and Council of Europe Secretary General Marija Pejcinovic Buric. "I'm pleased that we're part of a good club of countries that respect democracy and democratic values and that consider it to be good thing to meet and discuss how to strengthen them - and, of course, how to help Ukraine even better and more," said the president. Caputova wants to assure foreign partners that everything is fine in Slovakia "because having a caretaker government is a normal constitutional institution" and many countries have experience with this. The Slovak head of state added that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy won't attend the summit in person but will be connected online. She pointed out that she spoke with him for several hours during her recent visit to Ukraine. According to her, it's important that his ideas are heard in Reykjavik. This is the fourth summit of this organisation since the Council of Europe was set up in 1949. The previous one was hosted by Poland in 2005. am/df