Vienna: Nad Decorates Austrian Soldiers for Their Help to Slovakia

Vienna: Nad Decorates Austrian Soldiers for Their Help to Slovakia

Vienna/Bratislava, July 16 (TASR) – Defence Minister Jaroslav Nad and Chief of Slovak Armed Forces’ General Staff Daniel Zmeko decorated Austrian professional soldiers for carrying out tasks in a mixed civilian-military operation called Joint Responsibility, TASR learnt from the ministry press department on Friday.

“A friend in need is a friend indeed. This was confirmed true even in the most daunting of times, when Austria lent us a hand without any hesitation and assigned professional soldiers to help us with mass testing [for COVID-19] in the largest civilian-military operation ever in Slovakia,” declared Nad.

Nad and Zmeko decorated 34 members of the Austrian military with 2nd and 3rd class medals and thanked both the Austrian Government and the soldiers themselves for their “spirit and unselfish aid”.

The Austrian soldiers assigned to the Joint Responsibility op were part of a unit of Austrian military medics, sent to Slovakia to reinforce integrated teams that carried out mass testing of the Slovak population for COVID-19.

Nad also held talks with his Austrian counterpart Klaudia Tanner on security and defence at “bilateral, regional and multilateral levels”.