Premier: Slovakia Has Right to Decide its Own Pace of Defence Spending (2)

Bratislava, 24 June (TASR) - Prime Minister Robert Fico (Smer-SD) is convinced that any goal NATO is going to approve on Tuesday will never be fulfilled "down to the last detail" and reiterated that every country has the right to set its own pace and structure of defense spending, TASR learnt on the same day. Speaking with respect to the ongoing NATO summit in the Hague, Fico declared that Slovakia can meet the capabilities - expected within NATO - even on the existing budget of the Slovak Defence Ministry. „Slovakia has the sovereign right to decide what pace and what structure of defence spending we will have in our plan. At the same time, we guarantee that the two percent currently in the budget is sufficient to fulfill the capabilities that the NATO expects from us," Fico stated. According to the Prime Minister, the Slovak government has other priorities in 2026 than armament - first and foremost, it must restore the ravaged public finances. A possible increase in the Ministry of Defence's budget is only acceptable for projects such as the hospital in Presov or infrastructure projects needed by the army. He called NATO’s plan up to 2035 unrealistic and pointed to the sluggish pace at which an earlier commitment by member states to spend two percent of GDP on defense was fulfilled. Fico did not specify when Slovakia might reach the planned five percent of GDP for defense. „Maybe by 2035, this planet won't even exist anymore. When you look around and see how everyone is going crazy, I'm reasonably nervous about it. The great powers are doing whatever they want," he said. On Tuesday, the NATO summit begins in The Hague. It is expected that leaders will officially approve a commitment to increase defence spending collectively to five percent of GDP annually. Out of this amount, 3.5 percent of GDP should go directly to the military, and 1.5 percent is to be allocated to other defence-related expenditures, such as infrastructure development or reconstruction. Slovak President Peter Pellegrini, before departing for the summit, announced that Slovakia, along with other NATO countries, managed to negotiate an extension of the deadline for reaching the five percent GDP defense spending goal from the original five to ten years - until 2035. mf/mcs