President: Slovakia to Support Mark Rutte for Post of NATO Secretary General

Brussels, June 18 (TASR-correspondent) - Slovakia will support the candidacy of outgoing Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte for the post of NATO Secretary General, President Peter Pellegrini said on Tuesday after the end of an extraordinary European Council meeting. In return for this support, Slovakia wants help from the Netherlands in securing its air defence. Pellegrini pointed out that so far there have been two candidates for the post of NATO Secretary General - besides Rutte also Romanian President Klaus Iohannis. According to Pellegrini, it was understandable that Slovakia could imagine a representative of Central and Eastern Europe in this position. "Following consultations with both candidates and after consultations with Prime Minister Robert Fico [Smer-SD] and the Slovak government, the Slovak Republic can imagine supporting Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte as the head of the Alliance," stated Pellegrini. The Slovak head of state also pointed out that this support is accompanied by a plea and request from Slovakia that Rutte, as the next NATO chief, should ensure the protection of the Slovak airspace, which is unprotected after the handover of previous air-defence systems to Ukraine and after NATO allies - the Dutch and Italians - withdrew their temporarily provided systems from Slovakia. "Slovakia doesn't have any air-defence system today, and that is why Rutte and I discussed a situation that if he is elected as the head of the Alliance, he should make efforts to push through the protection and defence of Slovakia's airspace - at least until Slovakia is able to protect this airspace with its own capacities. Rutte expressed his willingness to address this in the future," said the Slovak president. Pellegrini added that he had also asked Rutte to take into account the geographical principle when filling positions in NATO at lower levels of management after his election. am/mcs