Army Chief: Two Slovenian Soldiers Going to Darfur

Brussels, 11 May

Slovenia will contribute two soldiers to the EU's civilian-military support action (AMIS II) in the Sudanese region of Darfur, Slovenian Army Chief-of-Staff, Major General Ladislav Lipic, said at the end of the spring meeting of NATO and EU chiefs of staff.

"The military proposal now only needs the support of the government and the deployment should follow in the coming months," Lipic said on Thursday in Brussels.
Slovenia plans to step up its already active participation in international peace-keeping operations. According to Lipic, it will shortly increase its presence in the KFOR mission in Kosovo from 97 to around 800 soldiers.
After this step, no less than 11% of the entire Slovenian Armed Forces will be active in international missions, which is an outstanding contribution to world peace, Lipic added.
Peace-keeping mission were however only one topic of the three-day meeting in Brussels, where talks mostly revolved around the future financing of NATO, which is plagued by insufficient funding and resistance to increase contributions on one side and increasing expectations by of the international community on the other side.
According to Lipic, the road to a solution will be long, with the most probable result being a scheme of common funds for strategic activities.
Joint operations were also discussed at the EU part of the meeting, which also touched on forming a vision for defence an security for the period after 2010.

Army Chief: Two Slovenian Soldiers Going to Darfur

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