NATO Secretary General visits Slovakia

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Secretary General Mark Rutte visited Slovakia Thursday and met with President Peter Pellegrini, Defence Minister Robert Kalinak and Foreign Affairs Minister Juraj Blanar. 

During his visit to the Lest training centre (Banska Bystrica region), he addressed the mustered soldiers from Slovakia, Spain, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Romania, the USA and Turkey, and praised their mutual cooperation in protecting the eastern flank of the Alliance.

During the visit Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) acquainted Rutte with the conditions of the training and showed him the space where members of the armed forces gain training experience and improve their combat skills.

Rutte also spoke at Comenius University in Bratislava  where he stated that  NATO needs a rapid and radical change to be ready to face the current challenges.  He reiterated his call for a significant increase in NATO's defence spending, above 3 percent of GDP, as well as an increase in the capabilities of the defence industry in Europe.

Rutte pointed out that security is under threat not only in Europe, but all over the world, warning that Russia, which unleashed the war in Ukraine, is rebuilding its military capabilities much faster than expected and "has allied itself with China, North Korea and Iran".

According to Rutte, even if the war in Ukraine is brought to an end, the threats won't disappear and the Alliance "must prepare for intense global competition". For this reason, member states should invest more in their own security.

Slovak President Peter Pellegrini met with Rutte and afterwards stated that  sustainable peace in Ukraine will be impossible without certain security guarantees, for which the European Union (EU) will be co-responsible.

Pellegrini believes that the EU should sit at the negotiating table with a confident demeanour and its own proposals on how to contribute to the sustainability of peace and the prevention of further conflict. According to him, the EU should demand a place in the peace negotiations on its own initiative. Pellegrini also pointed out that there's a difficult debate ahead of NATO member states regarding an increase in their military spending and at what pace this spending can be achieved.

According to Pellegrini, Slovakia is aware of the moral investment debt in equipping its army.

The Slovak head of state stressed that it does matter what the money going to defense is used for, noting that 20 percent should go for modernization. "I can proudly say that in Slovakia, as much as 35 percent of expenditures are directed towards modernization and not just the mere existence or functioning of the army," he said. He added that it will be important for Slovakia not only to increase the amount of money allocated for defense, but also to increase the share it allocates for modernization.

The opposition party Progressive Slovakia (PS) criticized Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD) for leaving for a conference in the USA and not meeting the NATO Secretary General.

"Any normal leader who cares a little about the fate of his country would be sitting with the NATO Secretary General at this moment," stated MP Tomas Valasek (PS). According to Valasek, the Premier should have addressed several questions to Rutte. He should have asked him, for example, whether or not it was possible to use NATO headquarters even if the United States decided not to participate in our defense.

Source TASR