BRATISLAVA – Slovakia’s ruling coalition and opposition met at the Presidential Palace on Wednesday for a roundtable discussion on defense spending, organized by Peter Pellegrini.
Alongside the leaders of the coalition and opposition parties, the meeting was attended by Defence Minister Robert Kaliňák (Smer-SD/NI) and the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Slovakia, Daniel Zmeko.
Pellegrini reported that both coalition and opposition representatives agreed Slovakia would not join the “coalition of the willing” and rejected sending Slovak troops to a potential peace mission in Ukraine.
While the government’s negative stance on troop deployment remains constant, opposition parties had expressed to Euractiv varying opinions just a month ago – ranging from indirect support to the view that it was not yet a relevant issue.
The president plans to continue discussions with parliamentary leaders on increasing defense spending ahead of the NATO summit in The Hague this June.
The new takeaway from the meeting is that not only the government, but also the opposition shares reluctance when it comes to increasing Slovak defense spending. Slovakia currently meets the NATO target of spending 2% of GDP on defence.
Participants of the roundtable also agreed on the importance of reinforcing NATO’s European pillar. Additionally, they concurred that should the United States scale back its involvement in NATO, Slovakia must be part of a potential new, independent European security model.
However, the issue of Slovakia’s financial contribution to Ukraine within the EU highlighted key differences between the coalition and opposition.
The coalition opposed any additional financial support, in contrast, some opposition parties argued Slovakia should play a more active and substantial role in aiding Ukraine.
(Natália Silenská | Euractiv.sk)