Naturally, my heart goes out to all Lisboans who had to endure some traffic complications on their way to work.
Meanwhile, in the category 'trivial yet fun facts to know' about this summit:
MorePutin evokes Cuban missile crisis
By Tony Barber in Mafra
Vladimir Putin, Russia’s president, on Friday compared US plans to build a missile defence shield near Russia’s borders to the 1962 Cuban missile crisis that brought the world to the brink of nuclear war.
Mr Putin quickly qualified his remarks, made after a summit with European Union leaders in Portugal, by saying that US-Russian relations had moved on since the Cold War and that he and George W. Bush, the US president, had a good personal relationship.
But Mr Putin’s deliberate evocation of one of history’s most dangerous episodes did little to soothe the nerves of his European hosts who, like their US allies, are struggling to stabilise a relationship with Russia that has more points of friction than at any time since the Soviet Union’s demise in 1991.
This after Europe had to take it up the **** last week from Viktor Khristenko, Russian Minister of Industry and Energy:
The complete text from Khristenko's infamous letter to the Financial Times that has caused such a stir in diplomatic circles.Will EU efforts to limit "objectionable" investment have an effect on Russia-EU industrial and energy co-operation? It is difficult to predict. But the world market generates not only risks but opportunities. Russia stretches across more than one geographical region and we can diversify our industrial and energy co-operation by turning to Asian and Pacific countries. Incidentally, the eastern vector has an important domestic dimension - such co-operation will help us develop eastern Siberia and east Asia. But I am convinced the EU has been and will remain our key partner.
Viktor Khristenko,
Russian Minister of Industry and Energy
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