President: Neutrality Would Be Much More Expensive Than Our NATO Membership

Bratislava, 17 June (TASR) - Neutrality would probably cost Slovakia several times more than its membership of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation does, said President Peter Pellegrini on Tuesday in response to Premier Robert Fico (Smer-SD), who said earlier in the day that neutrality would suit Slovakia at this time. "To be a neutral country doesn't mean you're such a good country that you're friends with everybody around you and nobody can hurt you. Neutrality means that you aren't part of some large international institutions, but then you have to guarantee everything yourself. And then it would maybe not be about 3.5 percent [of GDP spent] on armaments, but maybe 7, 8, 10 percent, and we wouldn't be able to handle that at all," pointed out the head of state. The president considers it to be key that support for Slovakia's membership of the North Atlantic Alliance is part of the government manifesto. "That's why I consider this statement to be purely [Fico's] personal attitude, perhaps raising some kind of a political issue again," he said, adding that it's a provocative idea that is cluttering up the public space. He described it as unnecessary and risky. Premier Fico, when answering a journalist's question concerning the issue of increasing defence spending, said that neutrality would suit Slovakia at this time, when arms producers are flourishing and Europe is talking about war. am/df