ŠTEFÁNIK heading to Latvia
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- Date: 31.03.2017
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Minister of Defence Peter Gajdoš and Chief of the General Staff of the SVK Armed Forces General Milan Maxim bid their farewell to the soldiers leaving for the training mission to the Baltics during a pre-deployment ceremony at the 13th Mechanised Battalion in Levice. A total of 149 SVK Armed Forces service personnel will be performing tasks in Latvia as part of the Task Force codenamed “Štefánik 2017”. Also on stand-by are two additional military policemen.
“Our soldiers are leaving to the Baltics as part of the V4 countries' joint initiative, which was endorsed by the North Atlantic Alliance. For the first time in history, in this way we are becoming directly involved in the reassurance measures for the Allies on the eastern flank. In view of training, for us this too is a new experience because never ever before have the SVK Armed Forces members been deployed on a training mission abroad in such strength and for such a long time,” said Minister Gajdoš. He further added that the V4 countries had reached consensus on the initiative within a short span of time and declared their intent to do so at the NATO Summit in Warsaw last year. “This is an expression of solidarity and clear evidence of the V4 being a strong brand,” said the Minister.
Each V4 country is making its own contribution to the training mission. The Czech Republic deployed the first rotation to Lithuania at the beginning of 2017. Building on the deployment is our Task Force Štefánik 2017 in Latvia, which is due from the beginning of April to the end of June 2017. This will be followed by the deployment of Hungarian troops to Estonia, and, finally, the deployment of Polish soldiers to Latvia.
“Our soldiers are leaving to the Baltics as part of the V4 countries' joint initiative, which was endorsed by the North Atlantic Alliance. For the first time in history, in this way we are becoming directly involved in the reassurance measures for the Allies on the eastern flank. In view of training, for us this too is a new experience because never ever before have the SVK Armed Forces members been deployed on a training mission abroad in such strength and for such a long time,” said Minister Gajdoš. He further added that the V4 countries had reached consensus on the initiative within a short span of time and declared their intent to do so at the NATO Summit in Warsaw last year. “This is an expression of solidarity and clear evidence of the V4 being a strong brand,” said the Minister.
Each V4 country is making its own contribution to the training mission. The Czech Republic deployed the first rotation to Lithuania at the beginning of 2017. Building on the deployment is our Task Force Štefánik 2017 in Latvia, which is due from the beginning of April to the end of June 2017. This will be followed by the deployment of Hungarian troops to Estonia, and, finally, the deployment of Polish soldiers to Latvia.
