14.10.2024.

Defence ministers Gašić, Kaliňák visit “14. Oktobar” Factory

Minister of Defence Bratislav Gašić and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defence of the Slovak Republic Robert Kaliňák visited today "14. Oktobar", a factory based in Kruševac.

Ministers Gašić and Kaliňák visited the factory’s production facilities and had a meeting with the factory management, where General Manager Petar Miljković spoke about the factory’s history, current projects and future plans.

At the meeting, Minister Gašić thanked the company management for their hospitality and expressed his expectation that in a year’s time, "14. Oktobar" would have even more modern production lines to be able to manufacture all the products planned by the management of the "Czechoslovak Group" company.

- The talks that Minister Kaliňák and I held with our colleagues today are aimed at bringing our defence industries closer together and enhancing the capabilities and potential that we can jointly create in the future. We also want to ensure that "14. Oktobar", after many years of decline followed by privatization, becomes the factory it deserves to be, the factory that built our beautiful city of Kruševac – said the Minister of Defence.

Minister Kaliňák thanked Minister Gašić for his hospitality and noted that they had held constructive discussions and that the situation in the world was such that the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza had shown that close cooperation between nations was very important. He emphasized that there was plenty of room for cooperation between the Serbian and Slovak defence industries, which was confirmed at today's meeting where the future cooperation between the two countries was discussed.

Earlier today, ministers Gašić and Kaliňák laid wreaths near the burial mounds in the Slobodište Memorial Complex and near the Monument to Kosovo Heroes in Kruševac - on the occasion of Kruševac Liberation Day.

Minister Gašić, accompanied by Brigadier General Goran Momčilović and the mayor of Kruševac, Ivan Manojlović, also laid a wreath near the memorial to members of the armed forces, police and reserve forces killed between 1991 and 1999, located in the Slobodište Memorial Complex.