Bosnia and Herzegovina and Slovakia have very good relations, with no open questions, said the Minister of Defense of Bosnia and Herzegovina Zukan Helez, who received the Minister of Defense of the Slovak Republic, Robert Kalinak, today in Sarajevo for an official visit.
“I would like to emphasize the cooperation in the field of arms industry. We have always maintained that Bosnia and Herzegovina has a wide range of products from the field of dedicated industry, and Europe has quite failed in that area in the past period. What makes me happy and I especially want to thank Slovakia for to support Bosnia and Herzegovina towards Euro-Atlantic integration,” Helez said.
He reminded that Slovakia, among the three key countries, is the biggest lobbyist for Bosnia and Herzegovina’s entry into the European Union, along with Austria and Croatia.
“It is certainly among the six countries, members of the European Union, which constantly support Bosnia and Herzegovina, and advocates that Bosnia and Herzegovina enter together with Ukraine, if not before, because it meets better conditions than Ukraine, with all due respect for the suffering this country is experiencing by Russia,” Helez pointed out.
They also agreed to strengthen defense cooperation.
“We have very good relations, we have no open questions,” said Helez.
He expressed the hope that in the coming period they will improve cooperation and raise it to a higher level.
“We have come to our friends,” Slovak Defense Minister Kalinak said at the beginning of his speech.
He stated that they came to visit not only to see their soldiers who are in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the ALTEA program, but also to discuss joint future cooperation.
“We talked about this during our meeting in Prague, and we repeated it today, so for us, the European future of Bosnia and Herzegovina is a priority. You have our absolute support on that path. If there is room for us to do something more, we are very happy we will do it. We are close nations, culturally, in our traditions, languages and history. That’s why joint success is important for us,” explained Kalinak.
He pointed out that he also discussed economic topics with Helez.
“We have a traditionally strong defense industry. The current situation in the world could be said to be an opportunity for both of our industries. Our countries have the potential for the needs that exist today and I am convinced that our cooperation can significantly contribute to the improvement and increasing economic opportunities, and of course the standard of living of the people who live here,” stressed Kalinak, AA writes.
Photo©️AA
