The civil society organisations Strategic Policy Institute - Stratpol and MEMO 98 published their open letter to the members of the National Council of the Slovak Republic, calling on them to end the deliberate misleading of the public and to support the Agreement on Defence Cooperation between the Slovak Republic and the United States of America. This open letter was also signed by other civil society organisations, representatives of academia, various experts, and the media.
The letter comes in response to irresponsible populism that seeks to drown out expert debate on the subject of the defence agreement with the United States. The signatories clearly express their support for the agreement and condemn the misleading discourse from some public officials.
Text of the open letter:
DO NOT GAMBLE WITH THE SECURITY OF SLOVAKIA
We are concerned about the demonisation of the public debate surrounding the Defence Cooperation Agreement between the Government of the Slovak Republic and the Government of the United States of America. The agreement is in full compliance with the strategic documents - the Security and Defence Strategy of the Slovak Republic adopted in 2021 - and the long-term consensus on the pro-European and Atlantic foreign policy orientation of our country. The agreement does not harm Slovakia's interests; on the contrary, it carries the considerable potential for strengthening our security, as well as for more firmly anchoring relations with our strategic partner, the United States of America, as the main guarantor of the collective defence system within NATO.
The long-term foreign policy and security interests of our country cannot be the subject of partisan calculations and populist games. On the contrary, Slovakia's interests must be unambiguous in order for us to be a predictable and responsible partner in international relations. Therefore, we, the undersigned representatives of the expert and civil society, as well as the academic community, call on you, the public officials, the chairs of the parliamentary parties, the Members of the National Council of the Slovak Republic to be responsible for the long-term interests of the Slovak Republic, to stop disinforming the public and, above all, to support the Agreement on Defence Cooperation between the Government of the Slovak Republic and the Government of the United States of America.
Signatories:
Jozef Bátora, political scientist
Martin Bútora, sociologist, writer, and diplomat
Miroslav Čaplovič, deputy editor-in-chief of Pravda daily
Pavol Demeš, foreign policy expert
Alexander Duleba, political scientist
Radovan Geist, analyst
Ivan Godársky, MEMO 98
Ján Hacaj, entrepreneur
Dominika Hajdu, Globsec
Lucia Husenicová, Central European Institute of Asian Studies
Ivan Chorvát, sociologist
Marián Jaslovský, publicist, journalist and musician
Matej Kandrík, Strategic Policy Institute
Miroslav Kocúr, theologian and teacher
Kamila Koníková, Slovak Security Policy Institute
Tomáš Kriššák, infosecurity expert
Rasťo Kužel, MEMO 98
Pavel Macko, politician a lietenant general r.
Juraj Marušiak, political scientist
Grigorij Mesežnikov, Institute for Public Affairs
Daniel Milo, lawyer
Marek Mračka, MEMO 98
Jana Poláčiková, university teacher
Miroslava Sawiris, analyst
Matúš Sloboda, science researcher
Arpád Soltész, writer and publicist
Matej Spišák, editor-in-chief of Infosecurity.sk
Tomáš Strážay, foreign policy expert
Boris Strečanský, civil society development expert
Soňa Szomolányi, political scientist
František Šebej, former politician and publicist
Matej Šimalčík, Central European Institute of Asian Studies
Ivan Šimko, politician and former Minister of Defence and Internal Affairs
Martin Šušol, monitoring specialist
Peter Terem, political scientist
Michal Vašečka, Bratislava Policy Institute
Ľudmila Verbická, Ukrainian-Slovak Initiative
Miroslav Wlachovský, diplomat
Lucia Yar, analyst
Peter Zajac, literary scholar and politician
Zuzana Zimenová, education analyst
Strategic Policy Institute - STRATPOL
An independent think-tank whose research covers defence and security policy with a focus on the Visegrad Four, Euro-Atlantic relations and NATO. STRATPOL seeks to create a space for expert debate and to address its findings and recommendations to legislators.
MEMO 98
A non-governmental organisation that has been analysing and monitoring traditional and social media, especially in the context of elections, for more than 23 years. Its representatives have participated in more than 150 international election observation missions and other projects, in more than 60 countries as trainers, consultants or experts in the field of media and elections.
[Strategic Policy Institute - STRATPOL]
Matej Kandrík: kandrik@stratpol.sk, office@stratpol.sk | +421 908 327 491
[MEMO 98]
Ivan Godársky: ivang@memo98.sk | +421 905 895 304
Rasťo Kužel: kuzel@memo98.sk | +421 905 493 591
office: memo98@memo98.sk | +421 903 581 591
