View of BratislavaPRAGUE, Feb 9Deputies of the National Council (parliament) of Slovakia on Wednesday approved by a majority of votes an agreement on military cooperation with the United States, the TA3 television channel reported. head of the Slovak Ministry of Defense Jaroslav Nagy,» the message reads.The head of the Slovak Foreign Ministry said that Ukraine in NATO would not threaten Russia. 79 deputies voted to approve the agreement, 60 voted against, one deputy abstained. Now the last word remains with the president of the republic, Zuzana Chaputova, who must ratify the agreement with her signature. Earlier, Chaputova had already expressed support for a military agreement with the United States. The Prosecutor General of the Republic, Maros Zilinka, found 35 inconsistencies with Slovak law in the document. On Tuesday, he said that the agreement with the United States would lead to a violation of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Slovakia, which transfers part of its rights to another state, and recommended that deputies reject the agreement.
The President of Slovakia advocated strengthening the defense of NATO's eastern flankLeaders of the opposition parties announced their intention to immediately begin collecting signatures from fellow citizens for holding a referendum, which would include two topics: holding early parliamentary elections and abandoning the military cooperation agreement with the United States. According to a public poll conducted at the end of January, 64% of those polled do not agree with the possible deployment of American troops in Slovakia, and 51% of respondents rejected the military agreement with the United States. 32% of respondents expressed their agreement with him. The bilateral agreement between Bratislava and Washington, which was previously approved by the Cabinet of Ministers of the Republic, will allow the American side to use the Malacky-Kuhinya military airfields in the east of the republic and Sliach in its central part for free. The agreement must be valid for 10 years with the possibility of subsequent extension or withdrawal. The document provides for the allocation by the American side of $100 million for the modernization of the defense infrastructure of Slovakia.
