MALACKY, SLOVAKIA: Slovakia received on Monday the first two of 14 new F-16 fighter jets that will replace Russian-made planes it had already donated to Ukraine.
Slovakia has relied on central European neighbours for air patrols since last year when it handed over a dozen MiG-29 fighters, which were to be grounded due to a lack of parts and maintenance, but which Kyiv could use in its war with Russia.
NATO member Slovakia, which lies on the military alliance’s eastern flank, is set to receive another 12 F-16s by the end of next year.
Slovakia had officially taken over the first jets, made by Lockheed Martin, earlier this year but they had stayed in the United States for maintenance training.
Slovakia signed a deal in 2018 for the 14 jets, worth around $1.6 billion. The first deliveries are a year late after delays during the COVID pandemic. The jets have become more important as NATO bolsters its eastern flank and neighbouring Ukraine fights a Russian invasion.
But the country’s new government under Prime Minister Robert Fico, in power since late last year, has ended state military aid to Ukraine and sought an investigation into the previous administration’s donation of the MIG-29 fighters.
(REUTERS)
In a career spanning three decades and counting, Ramananda (Ram to his friends) has been the foreign editor of The Telegraph, Outlook Magazine and the New Indian Express. He helped set up rediff.com’s editorial operations in San Jose and New York, helmed sify.com, and was the founder editor of India.com.
His work has featured in national and international publications like the Al Jazeera Centre for Studies, Global Times and Ashahi Shimbun. But his one constant over all these years, he says, has been the attempt to understand rising India’s place in the world.
He can rustle up a mean salad, his oil-less pepper chicken is to die for, and all it takes is some beer and rhythm and blues to rock his soul.
Talk to him about foreign and strategic affairs, media, South Asia, China, and of course India.
