“WE MANAGED to put Bratislava on the map of global thinking of foreign and international policy,” Róbert Vass, secretary general of the Slovak Atlantic Commission think tank and founder of the GLOBSEC series of forums, told The Slovak Spectator when asked about the main outcome of this year’s conference.
The Bratislava Security Forum, or GLOBSEC, took place in Bratislava on April 12-14 and hosted more than 600 participants from nearly 50 countries. They discussed various important global issues such as economic uncertainties, the Arab spring, developments in the Balkans and defence strategies.
Vass pointed to three main dimensions of the GLOBSEC forum. First, he referred to the fact that although the conference took place only eight days after a new government took office in Slovakia, its representatives participated in several panel discussions. “The first positive message is that Slovakia is a consolidated democracy and [its] foreign and security policy is continuous during the rule of any government,” Vass told The Slovak Spectator.
He also highlighted discussion of the European economic crisis and its impacts, and the importance of regional defence cooperation among central European countries, with its preliminary strategy reviewed at the forum.
