Slovenia is pondering the option of joining Active Endeavour, a NATO operation monitoring shipping in the Mediterranean to prevent smuggling and terrorist activity. Defence Minister Karl Erjavec said Slovenia would make this announcement at the NATO session in Brussels on Thursday.
The country will also express its readiness to help to equip the Afghanistan army and to contribute to a special fund for civilian victims in Afghanistan, Erjavec said on the sidelines of the two-day session of NATO defence ministers.
Active Endeavour is an operation in which Slovenia has not participated yet, Erjavec said. "The main objective is to monitor ships and prevent smuggling and trafficking in arms and people." While the minister did not specify what Slovenia's contribution to the mission would be, he said that Slovenian divers would probably be taking part.
According to Erjavec, NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer issued a new call to the ministers of 26 member states to enhance troops in NATO's most important mission in Afghanistan.
"Slovenia will continue to take active part in all segments in Afghanistan." Erjavec added that 12 Slovenian soldiers would join the 55 currently stationed in Herat in August.
The minister did not want to say how much Slovenia would contribute to the fund for civilian victims in Afghanistan or how it would help equip the security forces there, as options were still being considered.
He did say though that Afghanistan's further development and stability relied on the engagement of national authorities at all levels of reconstruction and on people being informed on the intention of the NATO mission.
More articles from this issue:
Archive
|