Minister Gajdoš holds talks with Estonian Minister of Defence Jüri Luik
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- Date: 18.05.2018
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Slovak Minister of Defence Peter Gajdoš today (18 May) met with Estonian Minister of Defence Jüri Luik at MOD Main Building. Bilateral defence engagement, NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence (eFP) and defence modernization were at the top of their agenda.
SVK Minister of Defence Peter Gajdoš said: “We are partners with Estonia in NATO and the EU. That is why we have a basis to build on and take our bilateral cooperation forward, be it in the fields of education, military exercises, PESCO or the defence industry.”
In the meeting, Head of the SVK MOD underscored the cooperation on military education between the General M. R. Štefánik Armed Forces Academy and the Baltic Defence College in Estonia, which has been evolving under the umbrella of the Central European Forum on Military Education (CEFME). At the same time, he suggested extending the areas of cooperation to include training at the Training Centre Lešť and the CBRN Training and Testing Centre Zemianske Kostoľany, and offered slots to Estonian officers on the SVK Armed Forces Academy-delivered International Staff Officers Course (ISOC) in Liptovský Mikuláš.
The leaders also discussed their international commitments and the deployments of their troops on international crisis management operations. In this connection, Minister Gajdoš informed his counterpart about the SVK contribution to NATO’s training activity in Iraq (NTCB-I), where SVK soldiers are tasked with training Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) personnel in mechanical demining, including train-the-trainer (TtT) programme, as well as how to maintain and repair Soviet-era assets. They also talked about the planned deployment of 152 SVK personnel to the Baltics as part of NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence (eFP). Head of the SVK MOD underscored the success of the Slovak-led PESCO Indirect Fire Support project, also known as EuroArtillery. Other topics of discussion included military mobility, EU-NATO cooperation, and the new NATO Command Structure Adaptation (NCS-A).
SVK Minister of Defence Peter Gajdoš said: “We are partners with Estonia in NATO and the EU. That is why we have a basis to build on and take our bilateral cooperation forward, be it in the fields of education, military exercises, PESCO or the defence industry.”
In the meeting, Head of the SVK MOD underscored the cooperation on military education between the General M. R. Štefánik Armed Forces Academy and the Baltic Defence College in Estonia, which has been evolving under the umbrella of the Central European Forum on Military Education (CEFME). At the same time, he suggested extending the areas of cooperation to include training at the Training Centre Lešť and the CBRN Training and Testing Centre Zemianske Kostoľany, and offered slots to Estonian officers on the SVK Armed Forces Academy-delivered International Staff Officers Course (ISOC) in Liptovský Mikuláš.
The leaders also discussed their international commitments and the deployments of their troops on international crisis management operations. In this connection, Minister Gajdoš informed his counterpart about the SVK contribution to NATO’s training activity in Iraq (NTCB-I), where SVK soldiers are tasked with training Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) personnel in mechanical demining, including train-the-trainer (TtT) programme, as well as how to maintain and repair Soviet-era assets. They also talked about the planned deployment of 152 SVK personnel to the Baltics as part of NATO’s enhanced Forward Presence (eFP). Head of the SVK MOD underscored the success of the Slovak-led PESCO Indirect Fire Support project, also known as EuroArtillery. Other topics of discussion included military mobility, EU-NATO cooperation, and the new NATO Command Structure Adaptation (NCS-A).
