News item | 29-03-2022 | 18:48
Minister Hoekstra of Foreign Affairs will successively visit Bratislava and Prague on Wednesday 30 March. There he will speak with his Slovakian counterpart Ivan Korčok, Minister of Foreign Affairs and European Affairs, and with the Czech Ministers Jan Lipavský of Foreign Affairs and Mikuláš Bek of European Affairs.
The purpose of the visits is to strengthen ties with Slovakia and the Czech Republic and cooperation within Europe. The talks are largely dominated by the war in Ukraine, the related refugee flow and the importance of unity within the EU and NATO in the message to Russia. The ministers also discussed cross-border challenges such as climate change, the importance of media freedom and strengthening the rule of law in the EU.
Minister Hoekstra will also visit a recently opened reception center for refugees in Bratislava. Since the invasion, more than 280,000 Ukrainian refugees have entered Slovakia via the 100-kilometer-long border with Ukraine. Most have moved on, about 54,000 have applied for temporary residence in Slovakia. Slovakia is a haven for journalists and human rights defenders from Ukraine and Russia, and the country has safeguarded Ukrainian heritage.
Minister Hoekstra will speak with the organization ‘People in Need’ in Prague. This Czech NGO provides humanitarian aid in more than 30 countries. The NGO is currently providing aid to tens of thousands of Ukrainians in the Czech Republic and Ukraine. 100 People in Need employees are in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Zaporozhye, Dnipro and Chernivtsi to deliver this aid.