Blanar: Slovakia Willing to Discuss Increasing Defence Budget Over 2% of GDP

Brussels, April 4 (TASR) - Slovakia is fulfilling its obligation to spend 2 percent of GDP on defence and is ready to discuss increasing this amount, though achieving domestic consensus among relevant political parties is a priority, stated Foreign Minister Juraj Blanar after Thursday's NATO foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels. The new head of US diplomacy Marco Rubio, was present at the meeting for the first time. During the working dinner in the NATO-Ukraine format, EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Kaja Kallas, and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha also joined the ministers. The ministerial meeting, attended by NATO Chief Mark Rutte, was dominated by the topic of increasing defence spending by NATO member countries, which will also be a key issue at the June summit in The Hague. "A proposal to increase defence spending to as much as five percent of GDP is on the table. I declared on behalf of the Slovak Republic that we are fulfilling our obligation to spend two percent on defence and are ready to discuss further increasing this amount," said Blanar after the meeting. lin