Ingrid Brocková: As a provider of humanitarian aid, Slovakia too suddenly finds itself in the position of its recipient

In addition to the possibility of streamlining the mechanism of providing humanitarian aid abroad, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs of the Slovak Republic, Ingrid Brocková and the State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior of the Slovak Republic, Vendelín Leitner, discussed today, February 25, 2021, the assistance which Slovakia has been receiving from its partners  in connection with the unfavourable pandemic situation in the country. "Slovakia, which has been showing solidarity with the countries affected by humanitarian disasters, finds itself, for the first time, on the opposite side, that is in the position of an applicant for assistance. We very much appreciate the prompt reaction of Romania, which was the first country to respond to our request for the deployment of medical staff, which was presented by Minister Ivan Korčok at the Monday's meeting of the Foreign Affairs Council, in Brussels,” said Ingrid Brocková during their talk.

The partners highlighted the particularly good level of inter-ministerial cooperation so far and agreed on the need to take specific action that will make the current mechanism of providing humanitarian aid of the Slovak Republic abroad more flexible and more effective, and would stimulate inter-ministerial communication with other stakeholders, such as state institutions, non-governmental humanitarian organizations and the private sector. Other themes of the talks were the preparation of a draft strategy for humanitarian aid abroad which should define Slovakia's priorities in this area and the mechanism of raising financial resources for humanitarian actions.

"The Ministry of the Interior, as the manager of material assistance, is our key partner in providing humanitarian aid of the Slovak Republic abroad. Our cooperation has been gaining a more intense dimension, also in connection with the Covid-19 pandemic. I am glad that together we see room for increasing the flexibility and effectiveness of the current humanitarian aid system, and we will work on the implementation of specific action in this direction," the State Secretary emphasized. Last year, the two ministries together sent thirteen humanitarian shipments to nine countries, with a total value of more than 1.3 million euros. Two weeks ago, Slovakia again showed solidarity with our partners from the Western Balkans by providing humanitarian aid in the fight against COVID-19 worth 315 thousand euros

Source: MFEA SR