State Secretary in Germany

The State Secretary of the SVK Ministry of Defence, Mr Miloš Koterec has completed a reciprocal working visit to Germany. The purpose of the visit was to meet with the Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Ministry of Defence, Dr Ralf Brauksiepe. The partners discussed the status of defence cooperation and other topical issues. Mr Koterec appreciated the intensification of bilateral activities, which has led to a broader military cooperation, to include, among others, military training, as well as resulting in the restart of specialized meetings between representatives of the Land Forces and Armaments Departments. During his visit to Germany, the State Secretary also met with representatives of the Bundeswehr and the Federal Parliament. He then visited the Army Command in Strausberg, where he met with the Inspector of the Army, Lt Gen Jörg Vollmer, to discuss options for joint training and the Bundeswehr’s participation in Exercise Slovak Shield 2016. At the Bundeswehr Joint Forces Operations Command (Bundeswehr JFOC), tasked with executing command and control of all Bundeswehr operations abroad, he met with Lt Gen Erich Pfeffer, Commander Bundeswehr JFOC, to discuss deployments of Slovak and German troops on international crisis management missions and operations. Finally, Mr Koterec met the ex-Chairman of the Defence Committee of the German Federal Parliament, Mr Hans-Peter Bartels, for talks on the current security challenges, the EU’s common security and defence policy (CSDP), and the migration crisis.