MORNING NEWS HIGHLIGHTS - Tuesday, October 22, 2024 - 9 a.m.

TASR brings a quick morning overview of the most important events seen in Slovakia on the previous day (Monday, October 21): BRATISLAVA - As Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) is set to visit China at the end of October and the beginning of November he received Chinese Ambassador to Slovakia Cai Ge on Monday, TASR has learnt from the Government Office. The premier and the ambassador discussed deepening economic cooperation between Slovakia and China as dozens of Slovak entrepreneurs will accompany Fico on his visit. "I believe that this important trip will bring new economic opportunities for our country. China's potential in this area is enormous," remarked Fico. Fico stressed to the ambassador that Slovakia considers China a friendly country. BRATISLAVA - The Slovak National Party (SNS) on Monday praised the decision to establish an investigative team to look into the state's management of the COVID-19 pandemic, thanking Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD), who announced the creation of the team earlier in the day. "We believe that this specialised team will focus on certain matters in cooperation with new Health Minister [Kamil Sasko] and Economy Minister Denisa Sakova. We hope that they will deliver real results to the public regarding who and how was making money from COVID-19 in 2020-22," the party stated. Earlier in the day, the interior minister announced that the Office for the Fight against Organised Crime (UBOK) is setting up an investigative team to look into the state's management of the pandemic. The team will focus on four areas: the allocation of public funds for the establishment of mobile facilities for collecting samples, purchases of medical supplies, the purchase of vaccines, and the reason why the death toll in the country reached 20,000 victims. BRATISLAVA - The Office for the Fight against Organised Crime (UBOK) is setting up an investigative team to look into the state's response to the COVID-19 pandemic, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok (Voice-SD) stated at a press conference on Monday. According to the minister, the team will focus on four areas. The first one will be the allocation of public funds for the establishment of mobile facilities for collecting samples. In his opinion, the process lacked transparency and the funds were allocated to individuals with ties to people who decided how the money would be distributed. The team will also look into what the minister called overpriced purchases of medical supplies. According to the minister, there was no public scrutiny and transparent competition of suppliers during the pandemic. The next area of investigation will be the purchase of vaccines, with the minister mentioning the procurement of Russian-made Sputnik V jabs as well as unused vaccines in this vein. Last but not least, the team will also investigate why the death toll in the country reached 20,000 victims. In the minister's opinion, the bereaved of the victims deserve to know who's politically and criminally responsible for the deaths of their relatives. Sutaj Estok noted that he expects other institutions to cooperate with the police, including government proxy for the review of the governance and resource management during the COVID-19 pandemic Peter Kotlar. The minister indicated that Kotlar will not serve directly on the team, however. BRATISLAVA - The Defence Ministry is discussing changes to the Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) between Slovakia and the United Stated of America with other ministries concerned with the issue, the ministry's communication department told TASR on Monday, adding that it still considers it to be premature to provide detailed information on the changes. "Given that in the past the contractual framework wasn't discussed with the ministries concerned or their comments were almost always rejected, the individual ministries welcome such an open discussion," stated the ministry, stressing that it is also in talks with its US counterparts. After assuming his office, Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) announced that it will be necessary to revise the DCA treaty, concluded in 2022, over what he sees as its "unfortunate wording". The DCA regulates the use of military airbases Malacky-Kuchyna and Sliac by the United States forces. It is to stay in effect for ten years and subsequently can either stay in force or get repudiated with a cancellation period of one year. mf