President: Support for Defence Spending Increase Was Based on Ministry Advice

Bratislava, 7 June (TASR) - At the meeting of the Bucharest Nine (B9) leaders in Vilnius, Lithuania, President Peter Pellegrini presented Slovakia’s position in line with the recommendations of the Slovak Defence Ministry and the General Staff of the Armed Forces, his spokesperson Patricia Medved Macikova said in response to comments made on the STVR programme Saturday Dialogues. In connection with the statements of coalition MP and Slovak National Party (SNS) leader Andrej Danko and MP from the opposition MP from Christian Democratic Movement (KDH) Viliam Karas — who described Pellegrini’s declaration of support for the proposal to increase in NATO defence spending as surprising and made without prior agreement during Saturday Dialogue — the spokeswoman said the president “always speaks at high-level international events after consultations with the relevant competent state authorities. According to her, this was also the case regarding the declared support in Vilnius. “This position was confirmed by Defence Minister Robert Kalinak (Smer-SD) at the NATO defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels on Friday (6 June),” Medved Macikova noted. President Peter Pellegrini at a summit of leaders of the B9 grouping on Monday (2 June) stated that Slovakia doesn't intend to be a country that would prevent consensus in the case of a hike in the defence spending of individual NATO-member states. He noted that according to the proposal, member states should gradually increase their direct defence spending from the current 2 percent of GDP to 3.5 percent. At the same time it would be possible to invest an additional 1.5 percent in so-called dual-purpose investments. lin