BRATISLAVA – Slovakia's ruling coalition and opposition met Wednesday at the Presidential Palace for a roundtable discussion on defense spending, hosted by Peter Pellegrini.
Along with the leaders of the coalition and opposition parties, the meeting was attended by Defence Minister Robert Kalinák (Smer-SD/NI) and Chief of the General Staff of the Slovak Armed Forces Daniel Zmeko.
Pellegrini said both coalition and opposition representatives agreed that Slovakia would not join the “coalition of the willing” and rejected sending Slovak troops to participate in a potential peacekeeping mission in Ukraine.
Although the government's negative position on the deployment of troops remains unchanged, opposition parties have expressed various opinions to Euractiv as recently as a month ago, ranging from indirect support to the opinion that the issue is not yet relevant.
The president plans to continue discussions with parliamentary leaders on increasing defence spending ahead of the NATO summit in The Hague in June this year.
The new conclusion from the meeting is that not only the government but also the opposition share the reluctance to increase Slovakia's defense spending. Slovakia currently meets NATO's defense spending target of 2% of GDP.
The participants of the round table also agreed on the importance of strengthening NATO's European pillar. They also agreed that if the US were to reduce its involvement in NATO, Slovakia should become part of a potentially new, independent model of European security.
However, the issue of Slovakia's financial contribution to Ukraine's activities within the EU has revealed key differences between the coalition and the opposition.
The coalition opposed any additional financial support, while some opposition parties, on the contrary, argued that Slovakia should play a more active and substantial role in providing assistance to Ukraine.
(Natalia Silenska | Euractiv.sk)
Source: Source
