Croatian and Slovakian ministers of defence meeting

During the meeting, there was discussion about the cooperation in the framework of NATO and the European Union, and engagement in peacekeeping operations, particularly in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan.

They also talked about improving bilateral defence cooperation, with special emphasis on the Croatian-Czech helicopter initiative and on the cooperation between the two economies in the field of defence industry.

As a first step in improving cooperation, the Slovakian joining to the Croatian-Czech helicopter initiative and joint helicopter teams training to be deployed to the ISAF operation was mentioned. The long-term perspective of the Croatian-Czech initiative is the development of skills of the allies in the area of standardized helicopter training and the launch of the Multinational aviation training centre for helicopter pilots training. As one of the elements of the future international centre for helicopter pilots training, a Croatian-Czech project of the pre-deployment pilots training to be deployed in the ISAF mission in Afghanistan within Air Advisory Teams was launched. Joining of Slovakia would represent a quality contribution to the project, as well as the additional contribution to the development of the pooling and sharing of capabilities.

Minister Kotromanović also used the occasion and invited the Slovak exhibitors to the fair of military equipment and weapons – ASDA (Adriatic Sea Defence and Aerospace) to be held in April 2013 in the Republic of Croatia.

The delegations exchanged experience in developing the concept of contractual reserve, while the Slovakian side expressed a great interest in the Croatian model of voluntary military.