President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gašparovič appointed a new Minister of the Slovak Republic, Martin Fedor. The official appointment act was attended by Prime Minister of the Slovak Republic Mikuláš Dzuridna, and resigning Minister of Defence Juraj Liška.

President Ivan Gašparovič accepted Juraj Liška’s demission and thanked him for his work while being the head of the defence department. He also thanked him for the fast course of reforms taken in the army, as well as good and fair cooperation in spite of existence of some different opinions. In his address, President Ivan Gašparovič underlined the credit of the Slovak armed forces they won in the NATO. “Our army is accepted as a reliable army. Our soldiers are dispatched to operations to perform challenging tasks.That the performance of our army in the armed forces of the Alliance and other peace-keeping forces is very much positive can be demonstrated also by the fact that in the field of landmines clearance we have actually become the leader of the Alliance,” said President Ivan Gašparovič. In addition, he emphasized the necessity of a thorough reform of the armed forces and their professionalism, which will be a task of newly appointed Minister Martin Fedor. In his speech, the President expressed his confidence in the new minister, and for performing this challenging job he wished him a lot of sound judgement and strength to accept the advice of his special advisor only when it will really be in the interest of the Slovak Republic and its citizens.

In his speech, newly appointed Minister of Defence thanked for the trust, and declared his firm decision to perform his new function in the interest of citizens of the Slovak Republic. He said that he would continue in the work of his predecessor for the sake of the security and defence strategy, for which he defined the following priorities – striking power of the Slovak Republic, participation in the international crisis management, and preparedness for unpredictable events and catastrophes in our territory. He promised to the head of the state that he would do everything needed so that our armed forces would meet their tasks.