Defence department representatives awarded by the Federal Republic of Germany

Thomas Götz, Ambassador of the Federal Republic of Germany to Bratislava, on behalf and in the name of Federal Minister of Defence Ursula von der Leyen handed over the Bundeswehr Gold Cross of Honour to Brig Gen Boris Ďurkech, Rector of the Armed Forces Academy, and the Bundeswehr Silver Cross of Honour to Elena Orfánusová, the representative of the Defence policy Department at SVK MoD, responsible for military bilateral cooperation with Germany. Brig Gen Boris Ďurkech contributed to the development of the Slovak – German cooperation in the field of education, mainly through cooperation between the AFA Liptovský Mikuláš and Helmut Schmidt-Universität Hamburg on the one hand and the Command Academy of the Bundeswehr, based in Hamburg, on the other hand. The outcome of the active bilateral cooperation in the field of education is a regular exchange of the Slovak and German lecturers or the annual participation of the Bundeswehr members in the international course designed for the staff officers ISOC, which is organized at the AFA Liptovský Mikuláš. Elena Orfánusová has been responsible for the Slovak – German agenda in the field of defence since 2013. In his address, Ambassador Götz emphasized increased Slovak – German bilateral cooperation, which is viewed as particularly effective. On this occasion, Brig Gen Boris Ďurkech presented medals of the Rector of the AFA Liptovský Mikuláš to Ambassador Thomas Götz and to Assistant Defence Attaché of Germany.