Increase in defence spending planned for NATO summit

Slovak President Andrej Kiska is due to attend a NATO summit in Brussels on Thursday to discuss defence investments by member states and NATO's activities in the fight against terrorism, the president's spokesman Roman Krpelan told TASR on Tuesday. Kiska is due to present specific moves approved by the Government earlier in May, including the dispatching of 150 soldiers to Latvia for one year as of 2018 as part of moves to strengthen NATO's presence in the Baltic. As a contribution in the fight against terrorism, Slovakia will send 47 soldiers to Iraq to train Iraqi demining and equipment maintenance specialists. In addition, Slovak special forces and members of the military police will take part in training the local security forces. The Slovak president will reiterate Slovakia's commitment to allocate 1.6 percent of its GDP annually for defence by the end of 2020, as already approved by Parliament. In addition, Slovakia will continue to lead the NATO Trust Fund for Ukraine in demining and ordnance disposal, apart from remaining part of the NATO mission in Afghanistan.