President Praises Slovakia's Role in Designing VLAH Armoured Vehicle for Romania

Bucharest, 14 May (TASR-correspondent) - President Peter Pellegrini visited the Black Sea Defence, Aerospace and Security (BSDA) international exhibition in Bucharest on Wednesday (13 May) to see for himself the VLAH light-armoured tactical vehicle developed by Slovak company Zetor Slovensko for the Romanian army, TASR has learnt from its special correspondent. At one of the largest defence and aerospace industry events in the Black Sea region, which he visited following the Bucharest Nine summit in Bucharest, Pellegrini expressed his delight that Slovakia is coming up with projects that are produced abroad. "This makes Slovakia a country with a competitive edge over those that simply manufacture products in large quantities and then sell them at a certain price as goods. That's why I came to support this project, as it shows that in Slovakia we can devise solutions and then manufacture them together with our foreign partners on their territory," he explained. "In a sense, we're returning to our Czechoslovak history. We are an industrial country capable of manufacturing such things. And this serves as an excellent example that Slovakia isn't striving to be just an ordinary manufacturer and seller of its products," Pellegrini told reporters. The tactical armoured vehicle VLAH developed by Zetor Slovensko is based on the design of the Gerlach armoured vehicle, which is currently being tested by the Slovak Armed Forces, so far with great success, according to Pellegrini. Even though the VLAH vehicle will be manufactured in Romania, the Slovak company will benefit financially from this cooperation. jrg/df