BRATISLAVA, June 21, (WEBNOVINY) — At a bilateral meeting with Georgian ambassador Alexander Nalbandov on Tuesday, Slovak Minister of Defense Lubomir Galko assured him that Slovakia fully supports Georgian efforts to integrate into NATO. Galko also praised the country’s engagement in the ISAF operation in Afghanistan. As MoD spokesman Ivan Rudolf told SITA, among non-NATO member states, Georgia is currently the one with the largest contingent in Afghanistan.
“We’re not a member of the Alliance yet. However, we do understand the importance of this operation. We therefore adopted a decision to almost double the number of our troops in ISAF some time ago,” explained the ambassador. Galko also informed him about current top event at the ministry, which is strategic evaluation of defense. The document will be submitted to the Cabinet within the next several days. “We may have to make some even more painful decisions and some larger-scale tidying-up, but the result will be modern and operational armed forces, which will be able to work as a reliable partner,” said the minister.
Nalbandov and Galko agreed upon common interest in deepening military cooperation between both countries. Slovakia can offer our training facilities to the Georgians, as well as training for lower rank officers in the Armed Forces Academy in Liptovsky Mikulas. According to the information from Georgian Ministry of Defense, a bilateral memorandum of understanding can be signed this fall, informed ambassador Nalbandov.
SITA