Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajčák on August 26 received Indiana National Guard Major General Roy Martin Umbarger during his visit to Slovakia, and thanked his American guest for the logistics and medical support that the US Army provided to the Slovak soldiers injured in the terrorist attack in Afghanistan.
“Slovakia will continue to act as a responsible partner and Alliance member in Afghanistan,” said Lajčák, as quoted by the TASR newswire. He praised the cooperation between the Indiana National Guard and the Slovak Armed Forces, which goes back almost two decades, and thanked Umbarger for his personal involvement in the process of bolstering this cooperation and US-Slovak mutual relations.
Umbarger also met the head of the general Staff of the Slovak armed forces, Major General Peter Vojtek, to discuss joint training programmes, joint operations in Afghanistan and the White Book on the Defence of Slovakia.
“It is symbolic that our US partner visited us during the time when we celebrate the anniversary of the Slovak National Uprising, and also in the year in which we commemorate the 20th anniversary of establishing the armed forces of the Slovak Republic,” Vojtek said, according to TASR. He continued to praise the great cooperation with members of the National Guard which had been, until July of this year, on the Slovak advisory team in the Afghan province of Uruzgan.
Umbarger was also received by Slovak defence Minister Martin Glváč, who awarded him with a Memorial Medal on the occasion of the SNP.
Umbarger is slated to visit the Slovak parliament, the eastern border of the country (where he will attend a demonstration of the defence of the border with Ukraine), the air wing of the Slovak army in Kuchyňa, a helicopter wing in Prešov, the self-motion artillery regiment in Michalovce and the battalion of radiation, chemical and biological defence in Rožňava. The schedule of his visit will culminate with his attendance at the Slovak International Air Fest 2013 at the Sliač airport on the weekend of August 31-September 1, TASR wrote.
(Source: TASR)
Compiled by Zuzana Vilikovská from press reports
The Slovak Spectator cannot vouch for the accuracy of the information presented in its Flash News postings.
