Presence of NATO military planners to improve Slovakia's security

The presence of a team of NATO military planners in Slovakia will strengthen the nation's security, Robert Ondrejcsák, director of the Centre for European and North Atlantic Affairs (CENAA) and former state secretary of Defence Ministry, told TASR on Friday. As the defence ministry stated on Friday, Slovakia has asked NATO to create an NFIU (NATO Force Integration Units) contact team here. Ondrejcsák sees the advantages in improving Slovakia's readiness in terms of receiving NATO forces and the interoperability between Slovak and NATO armed forces is to be improved as well. The NFIU team is to consist of approximately 40 people, whereas as many as half of them are to be Slovaks and the rest will be from other NATO countries. Slovakia is among eight NATO countries that have asked for a team to be established.