The chairs of the Slovenian and Austrian parliamentary defence committees, Anton Anderlic and Peter Fichtenbauer, met in Ljubljana on Monday to exchange opinions on the planning and implementation of the two countries' joint projects.
Anderlic said after the meeting that "MPs have to find a balance between the public expectations on effective security and defence, and between securing the conditions the two countries need to be able to take care of their own security".
Fichtenbauer meanwhile emphasised the supervisory role of parliament and said that the countries would make an effort to observe their obligations set out in the common security and defence policy.
He added that Slovenia had opted for a professional army and to become a member of NATO, while Austria had remained neutral in the process. He pointed out in this context that unlike Slovenia, which can count on the help and support from Italy, Austria had to take care of air defence by itself - thus Slovenia and Austria need to address this asymmetrical arrangement with different measures.
According to Fichtenbauer, the pair also discussed the obligations of both countries within the common security and defence policy, when it comes to the issue of Kosovo, operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina and cooperation in other crisis response operations.
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