Slovakia will join the new NATO mission in Afghanistan called Resolute Support, providing two rotations of 65 servicemen annually, Slovak Defence Minister Martin Glvač told journalists at the NATO summit in Newport on Thursday. Glvač pointed out that no agreements concerning the mission have been signed so far.
He noted that both Afghani presidential candidates have pledged to sign the agreements if elected, however. The Slovak defence minister conceded that the situation in Afghanistan is still far from being ideal. “Slovak soldiers are still in danger ... mainly now, during the withdrawal of a large number of servicemen,” he said. Slovakia's permanent representative to NATO Tomáš Valášek stressed that 300,000 Afghani soldiers are now ready. “The point is that the Afghani security forces have been functioning alone with minimal support of NATO for a year now. We're confident that we've managed to build Afghani security forces that they will be able to maintain order in the country after the ISAF operation is concluded [at the end of this year],” he said.
