Slovenian Defense Minister Matej Tonin announced that there is a possibility that Slovenian soldiers will join the mission in Bosnia and Herzegovina and that his country plans to deploy 200 of its troops in Slovakia, as part of strengthening NATO forces on the eastern wing due to the crisis in Ukraine.
According to Tonin, the situation in BiH is also deteriorating, where the European Union mission (Altea) has been strengthened with an additional 500 soldiers, but there are no soldiers from Slovenia in it.
Subsequent connection
He should be very careful in BiH, although tensions are still at the political level, Tonin said, expressing satisfaction that the EU had strengthened its mission in BiH with a quick reaction, as things could get worse, Hina reports.
There are no Slovenians among the 500 EU troops recently sent to BiH, but there is a possibility that they will join later, he said, Avaz writes.
Speaking to POP-TV, the Slovenian defense minister added that he would discuss details with the Slovak defense minister this week and expected a special NATO mission in Slovakia to be established by the summer of this year.
Send 200 soldiers to Slovakia
“We are strengthening our presence in NATO missions. There are currently 50 of our soldiers in Latvia and that number will remain unchanged, and we are negotiating the deployment of troops in Slovakia. We have already made an internal decision on that, we intend to send up to 200 soldiers to Slovakia,” he said, adding:
“Especially because some countries that are heavily burdened by the war in Ukraine, but also by the wave of refugees from that country, have asked us to take over part of their burden. But I will discuss these specific things with the Slovak Minister of Defense this week,” he concluded.
