President Peter Pellegrini is convening a roundtable meeting on the issue of increasing Slovakia's defence capabilities and a potential increase in its defence spending, informed the President Office's communications department.
The meeting should be held at the Presidential Palace on March 26.
"The head of state will invite the chairmen of the parliamentary parties who received an invitation to the previous roundtable meeting, as well as Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) and Chief-of-General-Staff of the Slovak Armed Forces Daniel Zmeko," said the communications department.
Last week, the opposition's SaS announced it will convene a roundtable of opposition parties on March 19 to discuss defence capabilities of Europe and the increase in defence spending. SaS leader Branislav Gröhling declared that the opposition roundtable on defence is only the first in a series of talks on several issues of consequence, with more meetings on education, justice, health and finances to follow.
The Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) declared that they will take part in opposition roundtable talks. KDH detailed that it perceives Wednesday's roundtable as a preparation for the future talks with President Peter Pellegrini.
"The bolstering of defence spending must be based on common sense and not hysteria. Any decisions must be backed by a consensus within the EU and NATO, and reflect Slovakia's economic situation," underlined the Christian Democrats.
Source: TASR
