Caputova and Pavel Praise Cooperation and Unity among Soldiers in Lest
Slovak President Zuzana Caputova and her Czech counterpart Petr Pavel familiarised themselves with activities in the area of training, dealing with combat situations, as well as daily regime and possibilities of spending leisure time during their visit to the Lest Training Centre on Wednesday.
Lest, June 7 (TASR) - Slovak President Zuzana Caputova and her Czech counterpart Petr Pavel familiarised themselves with activities in the area of training, dealing with combat situations, as well as daily regime and possibilities of spending leisure time during their visit to the Lest Training Centre (Banska Bystrica region) on Wednesday.
Caputova thanked the Czech troops who lead the multinational combat group in Lest. "It's a very important signal of assurance for the people of Slovakia. We are a country neighbouring with Ukraine and this signal of assurance, the presence of soldiers from other countries under the Czech command, is therefore very important. It is a signal not only of cooperation, solidarity, but also of unity, which we need now so badly," she said.
According to Pavel, it is pleasing to see that the project that was created at a time when he himself served as chairman of the NATO military committee, when the first four groups were formed as a reaction to the Russian annexation of Crimea, is working well. "Today we already have eight such groupings, with the Czech Republic being the leading nation in one of them, right in the neighbouring Slovakia," stated the Czech president.
The two presidents also spoke informally to Slovak and Czech soldiers who are part of the group and also checked their equipment.
There are currently over 1,000 soldiers from Slovakia, Germany, Slovenia, the USA and the Czech Republic in Lest, who are a part of the multinational combat group. The highest number of them, some 500, are from the Czech Republic. Soldiers change in six-month rotations.
