Foreign Policies

Chinese Aircraft to Pick Humanitarian Aid Departs from Bratislava Airport

Bratislava, February 7 (TASR) – A Chinese aircraft, Boeing 747-400, that flew to Slovakia to pick up coronavirus-related humanitarian aid took off from the M.R. Stefanik Airport in Bratislava shortly before 5 p.m. on Friday, Karol Sebo, one of Slovak entrepreneurs active in China, confirmed to TASR on the same day.

The aircraft landed in Bratislava on Friday morning.

“The airplane departed at 4.55 P.M., successfully loaded up and cleared. The flight was commercial. It wasn’t any humanitarian aid in the sense that the Slovak Republic was collecting medical equipment and sending it to China. Slovakia will help with a financial contribution. I think the sum is €200,000,” claimed Sebo.

According to the entrepreneur, the flight was bankrolled by local Chinese Government in Cangzhou prefecture. “We’ve got a number of Slovak firms there in China. Seeing as we have contacts with the local Government, they asked us for help with securing contracts on medical equipment. We don’t normally do business in this sphere, but since we’ve been asked for help, we’ll help, of course,” stated Sebo.

“It’s a commercial flight aimed to transport medical equipment such as face masks, protection gloves and eye goggles to Beijing,” said airport spokesperson Veronika Sevcikova earlier in the day.

The Slovak authorities were asked on Wednesday (February 5) to allow a charter flight from Shanghai to land in Bratislava in order to collect several tonnes of medical humanitarian aid related to the Wuhan coronavirus and take it to Beijing. The Transport Ministry granted the permission to land in Bratislava under strict security conditions. Among them was that the crew were not allowed to leave the plane. The aircraft landed in the Slovak capital shortly after 7 a.m. on Friday.

SPPK: If Farmers Aren't Taken Seriously, They Will Be Seen in Streets More Often

If farmers' demands are not taken seriously, they will be seen in the streets more often, Slovak Agriculture and Food Chamber chairman Emil Macho told a news conference held in front of the Parliament's building on Thursday.

PM: Slovakia to Organise Repeated Mass Testing, Two Dozen Districts Exempt

Bratislava, November 2 (TASR) – Slovakia will organise a repeated mass testing for the coronavirus, but districts with positivity rates below 0.7 percent in the testing this past weekend will be exempt from the second round, Prime Minister Igor Matovic (OLaNO) announced after a meeting of the Central Crisis Management

President: Arrival of F-16 Fighters Important for Slovakia's Defence

The arrival of the first two Slovak F-16 fighter jets from the United States is important for Slovakia's defence, said Commander-in-Chief of the Slovak Armed Forces and President Peter Pellegrini at a ceremony that took place as the aircraft landed at Kuchyna military airbase on Monday.

Read next