Altogether 152 Slovak soldiers may be deployed to Latvia as part of the joint training mission of the Visegrad Group (V4) countries. This stems from the document approved by the government on January 11.
The soldiers should stay in the country between April and June. The mission is part of the training realised by the V4 countries (i.e. Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary) in the Baltic countries that are also members of NATO. Together with the joint declaration of the Baltic countries, the mission should contribute to the activities of NATO in the region, explained the Defence Ministry, as reported by the TASR newswire.
Defence Minister Peter Gajdoš (nominee of the Slovak National Party) mentioned the deployment of Slovak soldiers to the Baltic countries back in July at the NATO summit in Warsaw.
The first to be deployed in the area will be Czech soldiers, who will then be followed by the groups from Slovakia, Hungary and Poland.
The deployment still needs to be approved by parliament, TASR wrote.
