Slovakia marks 20 years since joining NATO. (source: TASR)
Slovak governments declared their ambition to become a member of NATO from the very beginning of the republic. However, Slovakia didn’t join the Alliance until March 29, 2004.
It was the second attempt.
Slovakia’s entry into the North Atlantic Alliance was preceded by the NATO summit in Madrid in 1997. The Alliance offered membership to only three states of the Visegrad Group - the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary. Slovakia didn’t receive the invitation.
Slovakia was excluded from NATO expansion due to Vladimír Mečiar’s undemocratic governments. Thus, Slovakia entered the Alliance only in the company of Bulgaria, Romania and the three Baltic states.
“After the Alliance was expanded to include three of our neighbours in 1999, many of our foreign partners questioned whether further expansion was even necessary. Explaining and convincing them of the opposite required persistence and also a fair amount of stubbornness and stamina,” said President Zuzana Čaputová in her speech on March 27.
She thanked the then prime minister Mikuláš Dzurinda, then deputy ministers Rastislav Káčer and Ivan Korčok, then defence minister Jozef Stank and then foreign minister Eduard Kukan, who led the accession negotiations.
The security situation in Europe has changed significantly since then. The turning point was the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which is the first war of conquest in Europe since the Second World War.
“And in, from my point of view, the most serious security situation since our establishment in 1993, Slovakia lacks agreement on where it actually belongs,” said the president.
She blamed disinformation, propaganda, but also some Slovak politicians.
“Part of the relevant political parties started exploiting the topic of NATO for political fights,” said the president, “The rhetoric of not only the political extreme, but also some people who sit in the government today, is slowly making our key Alliance ally, the USA, a bigger enemy than the country that attacked our neighbour, and that itself put us on the list of enemies.”
Four experts - former foreign minister and ambassador Rastislav Káčer, former premier and foreign minister Mikuláš Dzurinda (1998-2006), Globsec expert and former defence minister Martin Sklenár, and former foreign minister and ambassador Miroslav Wlachovský - answer three questions related to the 20th anniversary of joining NATO.
Questions
Where would Slovakia be today if it weren’t a NATO member? How would Slovakia have to behave, and what would its security situation be?
What was the image of Slovakia in 1997, when the Madrid summit decided to accept the Czech Republic, Poland and Hungary, and what is it like today?
What security challenges face Slovakia today in the context of the war in Ukraine and the possible withdrawal of the US from Europe?
