Slovak troops will leave Afghanistan

On Wednesday, April 14, Defense Minister Jaroslav Naď (OĽaNO) attended an extraordinary meeting of the North Atlantic Council with the Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs of NATO member countries. The main topic of the summit was that the Alliance is withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan after almost 20 years. "We are content that the situation in the country and the ongoing peace talks allow us to decide on the phasing out of NATO's nearly 20 years of operation in Afghanistan," the defense minister said at the council's meeting. He also specified that the safe withdrawal of the Slovak forces would be carried out between May 1 and September 11, 2021. In the past 20 years, Slovakia has participated in international crisis management operations, through development and humanitarian assistance, as well as by building Afghan national capacities.