Blanar Phones Australian Foreign Minister and Discusses Sydney Attack Inter Alia

Bratislava, 18 December (TASR) - Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong thanked Slovakia for the solidarity that it showed following last week's attack in Sydney during a telephone conversation with her Slovak counterpart Juraj Blanar (Smer-SD) on Thursday, the Slovak Foreign Ministry's communications department told TASR on Thursday. The ministry added that Wong also informed Slovakia's chief diplomat about further steps and active initiatives employed to investigate the tragedy and take measures to prevent similar events from happening again. "I once again expressed my solidarity and sincere condolences to my counterpart. This tragedy affected us all the more because one of the victims was a Slovak woman from the Jewish community with dual Slovak and Australian citizenship," said Blanar, praising the rapid response at the scene and the subsequent adoption of important security measures. "Slovakia condemns all manifestations of anti-Semitism. We are ready to provide Australia with assistance at any level in the fight against such unacceptable attacks based on religious hatred," emphasised the minister. Wong praised Slovakia's approach and highlighted the strengthening of Slovakia's diplomatic presence in Australia with the reopening of the Slovak Embassy in Canberra. "The minister and I also discussed the new strategic concept of our engagement in the Indo-Pacific," said Blanar, adding that this is a key document that he personally presented to ambassadors from this region last week. "Our intention is to expand cooperation with Indo-Pacific countries, not only on the political and multilateral but also the bilateral level," added Blanar. am/df