When the statements of defence minister Lubomir Galko about withdrawing troops from Cyprus reached the ears of foreign affairs minister Mikulas Dzurinda, he could not hide his rage.
Dzurinda is angered by the public statements made by Galko, saying it was inappropriate and unprofessional of Galko to say something like that to the media. Dzurinda also said that the comments were very irresponsible and harmful for Slovakia.
Almost immediately after Galko’s press conference on the subject, Dzurinda received a text message from his Cypriot counterpart, Markos Kyprianou, and he had the Ambassador of Cyprus waiting for him at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Cyprus has only had an embassy in Slovakia since November 2010.
Dzurinda is strongly against the withdrawal of Slovak troops from Cyprus and wants to make an audit of the defence ministry’s budget to see if such scrimping and saving is necessary.
In reaction to Dzurinda’s comments, Galko said that he did not think Dzurinda was exactly the right kind of person to judge others about the level of professionalism or damaging Slovakia abroad. Quite a comment about the country’s foreign minister and his coalition colleague.