President visits members of Slovak military contingents in Kosovo, Bosnia and Herzegovina

The President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gašparovič, accompanied by Defence Minister Jaroslav Baška, visited members of the Slovak military contingents in Kosovo as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina on 8 December 2008.

As the commander-in-chief, it has become a pre-Christmas tradition for the President to visit Slovak troops deployed in foreign missions and bring along their families. At present, the KFOR operation in Kosovo involves 138 troops of the Armed Forces; four Slovak officers and a security squad are stationed in the command centre of the EUFOR – ALTHEA mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

In the headquarters of the KFOR mission in Kosovo, Ivan Gašparovič met KFOR commander Emilio Gay and laid a wreath to pay homage to the troops of the international contingent who died in the course of duty.

President Gašparovič also arrived at the Slovak KFOR contingent base SLOVCON in Šajkovac and spoke to the members of SLOVCON units and EULEX police officers.

In Bosnia and Herzegovina, Ivan Gašparovič visited Camp Butmir and met EUFOR ALTHEA commander Stefano Castagnotto. In addition to meeting the members of the Slovak Armed Forces serving under the ALTHEA contingent, Ivan Gašparovič held talks with Miroslav Lajčák, the United Nations High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Nebojša Radmanović, who currently chairs the tripartite Presidency of Bosnia and Herzegovina. They discussed the current situation in the region as well as integration efforts of the Western Balkan countries.