Representatives of the Czech manufacturers and exporters of security and defense industry visited Djibouti and Ethiopia from February 10 to February 12, 2020. The mission was led by the Deputy Minister of Defense of the Czech Republic for Industrial Cooperation Tomáš Kopečný. In both countries the companies introduced their production and export program. In Addis Ababa Mr. Kopečný signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation between Ministries of Defense of the Czech Republic and Ethiopia, according the foreign affairs of Czech Republic.
In Djibouti, it was the first collective mission of the Czech defense and security industry ever.
Representatives of the Czech companies attended meetings of Kopečný with important representatives of the Djiboutian defense and security institutions.
The cooperation of the Czech Republic and the former Czechoslovakia with Ethiopia in the defense sector has a long and successful tradition and the mission has become its integral part.
The Deputy Minister Kopečný and the Deputy Minister for the Industrial Cooperation of the Ethiopian Ministry of National Defense, Fisehou Woldesenbet, signed the Memorandum of Understanding on Cooperation between the Defense Ministries of the two countries.
In addition to technical and technological support, the Ethiopian partner has shown an interest in the transfer of know-how for independent manufacturing and repair activities.
General Knížek, Director of the Military History Institute of the Czech Republic offered Czech support for the creation of the Ethiopian Military Museum. He also asked the Ethiopian side for help in finding the tanks of the type AH-IV, or their remains, with the aim of reconstruction and inclusion in the historical collections of the Institute. These small tanks were made in Czechoslovakia in 1948 and were included in the armament of the then Imperial Ethiopian ground army.
At the end of the mission, Kopecny, General Knizek and Defense Attaché at the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Nairobi Lieutenant Colonel Abonyi honored the memory of Colonel Rosík at the Addis Ababa Catholic Cemetery. Colonel Rosík served in Ethiopia as an advisor to Emperor Haile Selassie I.
The Ethiopian Herald Sunday Edition February 23/2020
BY MEHARI BEYENE
