Minister meets with Dutch Ambassador Richard van Rijssen

The defence co-operation between the Slovak Republic and the Kingdom of the Netherlands has been maintained at a good level and has the potential to grow further. On this, both Minister of Defence Peter Gajdoš and the Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to the Slovak Republic, HE Mr Richard van Rijssen, were unanimously in agreement. The Minister informed the ambassador of the updated White Paper on Defence of the Slovak Republic and the modernisation projects. Topics of discussion were the SVK EU Presidency and the NATO Defence Ministers' informal meeting in Bratislava, to be held on 26-27 Sept. There, one of the underlying themes will be the Global Strategy for the EU's Foreign and Security Policy (EUGS), which will be elaborated on separately as part of an EUGS conference. Other topics will include the co-operation between the EU and NATO. Our historically first EU presidency comes part of the current presidency trio – the Netherlands, Slovakia and Malta. The Minister and the ambassador also discussed regional co-operation. The issue of Reserves is being considered as a potential area of co-operation.