The Slovak President Andrej Kiska as the Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces for the first time visited the Defence Ministry and met with Minister Martin Glvač. Kiska claims they spoke about the necessity to modernize the army.
The President and the Defence Minister also addressed some fundamental issues before the next NATO summit, which will be held in Wales in September. According to Kiska, it is a logical move for a small country like Slovakia to share defence costs with its neighbours. When asked by reporters about his opinion on military budgeting, Kiska replied that he is listening to the arguments of both the Defence Ministry and Prime Minister Robert Fico. According to Fico, there’s no room for boosting the military budget. Slovakia allocates approximately 1 percent of its GDP to defence, which means that it is failing to meet a political agreement of investing 2 percent of GDP for defence purposes. On Tuesday and Wednesday, President Kiska is on his first official visit to the Czech Republic. With his Czech counterpart Miloš Zeman they will discuss bilateral and regional cooperation, as well as international political issues.
