He will also meet President Peter Pellegrini Prime Minister Robert Fico.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will visit Slovakia on Thursday (20 February). He will negotiate with President of the Slovak Republic Peter Pellegrini, Prime Minister Robert Fico and Minister of Defense Robert Kalinak. During the day he will speak to soldiers in the center of training Lešť and employees and students of Comenius University in Bratislava. TASR reports this according to NATO press release.
Rutte’s visit to Fico announced at the end of January, and Pellegrini subsequently confirmed it to the media during the last Munich Security Conference. According to the President, the topic of negotiations with the NATO chief will also be an increase in defense spending.
The press release shows that Rutte will have a joint press conference with Pellegrini at 14.40 h. At 16.25 he will perform with a speech at Comenius University.
In a recent interview for Politico, Rutte said that alliance Member States will have to increase the defense spending significantly more than three percent of GDP. According to him, he will be discussed at the June NATO Summit in Hague.
The Allies in the North Atlantic Alliance agreed in 2014 that two percent of their GDP will set aside every year. However, the new US President Donald Trump is now urging the Member States to contribute up to five percent of GDP.
