President of the Slovak Republic Ivan Gašparovič, as head of the Slovak delegation at the NATO summit in Strasbourg, delivered a speech at the North Atlantic Council’s meeting. The President praised the enlargement of NATO with two new members – Albania and Croatia.

According to Ivan Gašparovič “such a successful completion of their long efforts over recent years is the best proof that the North Atlantic Alliance is not “tired of enlargement”; quite to the contrary, through its gradual enlargement with well-prepared countries, the organisation is shaping not only itself, but also the entire of Europe to be a zone of democracy, stability, peace and security.”

The President said that over the past five years, the Slovak Republic has had many opportunities to appreciate the benefits for the country’s overall development that have arisen from its NATO membership. Benefits that cannot be measured solely against military or security parameters. According to the President “we fully agree with the opinion that NATO’s key priority is, both at the operational and political level, to ensure the necessary level of stability in Afghanistan, but also for the most part to achieve the aim that in the future the country will no longer become a refuge for terrorists.”

The Slovak President emphasised to the leaders of NATO’s members that Slovakia was aware of the fact that the operation in Afghanistan is a serious test of our credibility as the Alliance in the eyes of our citizens, as well as the international public. “However, a long-term solution in Afghanistan cannot be achieved solely by the military, NATO is not the only responsible player in the region and does not have a recipe as to how to solve all the region’s problems either” Ivan Gašparovič said in Strasbourg. In his opinion, Afghanistan cannot become stable without the contribution of other regional players, particularly Russia, China, India, Iran and especially Pakistan.

Ivan Gašparovič confirmed that the troops of the Slovak Armed Forces would further participate in the activities of Mobile Training Teams and Provincial Reconstruction Teams, with a special team of healthcare workers to be sent to Afghanistan to support the elections. “In 2009, Slovakia included Afghanistan among its priority countries for the provision of official development aid, with its share increased by 40%” – the President emphasised.

One of the results of this NATO summit is the strengthening of troops in Afghanistan in order to ensure security in the country during the elections of the Afghan president. The elections are due to take place in August.