KDH Blasts President for Committing to Increased Defence Spending

Bratislava, June 2 (TASR) - The opposition Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) has criticised President Peter Pellegrini for making a commitment to increase defence spending without the promised extensive discussion among experts and politicians, TASR learnt from the party's press department on Monday. KDH thus wonders whether the president is aligned with the government and how Slovakia plans to finance the spending. "The Christian Democratic Movement also notes that there is no consensus on this issue across the political spectrum. At the last roundtable discussion, the president promised the participating representatives of political parties a broad political and expert discussion," stated KDH. Slovak President Peter Pellegrini, upon arriving at the summit of Bucharest Nine (B9) leaders in Vilnius, Lithuania on Monday confirmed that Slovakia will support the proposed increase in defence spending by NATO-member states from 2 to 3.5 percent of each country's gross domestic product. mf/df