BRATISLAVA, June 23 (Xinhua) -- Slovakia won't support any increase in spending on the purchase of weapons systems above the 2025 level in the 2026 state budget, Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said on Monday.
The prime minister made the remarks ahead of the upcoming North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in The Hague, where member states are scheduled to discuss the proposal of raising their defence expenditure to 5 percent of their gross domestic product (GDP).
He added that any increase in the defense budget for 2026 will only be used for dual-purpose projects, such as hospitals and road infrastructure, the News Agency of the Slovak Republic reported, citing the Government Office's press department.
Slovakia has other priorities than armaments in the coming years at a time of "recovering public finances and catching up with the average standard of living in the European Union," according to Fico.
Fico noted that the state must reserve the sovereign right to decide at what pace and structure it is prepared to increase the budget so as to achieve the NATO plan. ■
