BRATISLAVA, March 16, (WEBNOVINY) – Foreign Minister Mikulas Dzurinda is angry with his fellow Cabinet member, Defense Minister Lubomir Galko. Dzurinda said that his colleague was too rash in his announcement that he will propose withdrawal of soldiers from the UNICYP mission in Cyprus. Dzurinda thinks that Galko’s statements at a news conference earlier on Wednesday were very inappropriate. “Let’s not put the thing topsy-turvy and let us not begin blazing abroad that we’re going to withdraw our troops because we are pinched somewhere else; this is very irresponsible, unprofessional and harms Slovakia,” Dzurinda countered.
The foreign minister said that he has received an SMS from his Cypriot counterpart, while the ambassador of Cyprus is already waiting for him at the ministry. Dzurinda thinks that it would be a fatal mistake to pull troops out of Cyprus. “It is hard work to build credit and reputation, why should we voluntarily damage it on our own so cheaply?” he commented.
Galko reacted that he considers Dzurinda’s statement emotional and priggish in certain regard. He insists that the pullout would not be a mistake. Galko underscored that before he announced the intention in the morning, he had communicated about the matter with Dzurinda. Moreover, Galko has doubts whether Mikulas Dzurinda is the right man to judge anybody’s amateurism or harming the Slovak Republic’s name abroad, in this case.
Galko admitted in the morning that if funds for the mission were found outside the ministry’s budget, it would be possible to discuss Slovak troops remaining in Cyprus. He proposes the withdrawal because the mission is not developing the army’s capabilities, the United Nations refunds only a small portion of the mission cost and Slovakia failed to gain a command post there. Slovak troops have served in Cyprus since 2001; 1,900 members of the Armed Forces have rotated there.
SITA