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SUMMARYfor several years. What do we have in common,it‘s an idea to protect democratic principleselsewhere world-wide. Notwithstanding,Slovakia took over its portion of responsibilitynot only as a matter of fact but also officially indocuments. The N.A.T.O. membership does notmean just economic and political advantagesonly for our country but also duties andresponsibilities. To be precise, we make everyendeavour to fulfil all and any obligations.Slovakia is interested to get involved in andto contribute to a successful transformation ofthe N.A.T.O. into alliance of the 21st century.Therefore, we stick with the reform of ourArmed Forces. We recognize that the North-Atlantic Alliance will be as strong and ready tofight as strong its member countries will be.In mid of October, you took part in aninformal meeting of the N.A.T.O. membercountries in Brašov, Rumania. The foreseenagenda was to deal with a futureof peace-keeping missions under North-Atlantic Alliance command in Afganistanand Balkan. What was the conclusion ofa discussion covering the issue regardingSlovakia‘s participation in the peacekeepingmissions in the above locations?My U.S. counterpart Donald Rumsfeld cameto Rumania with a request that the N.A.T.O.would take over a responsibility for operationsin Afganistan. Slovakia is open to this thoughtand I may say that also other countries are.Notwithstanding, we face some unsolvedissues as a matter of fact. The problem isthe legislative framework of performance inAfganistan, to be exact. Let me comment onSlovakia. We were awarded the mandate forthe Permanent Freedom by the Parliament bythe end of next year and for the ISAF operationby the 2006 year. The issue of performance ina foreign operation has to be agreed by thenational Parliaments; it is similarly applicablein majority of the countries performing in thesemissions as it is taken in our country. Whatconcerns Kosovo, we agreed that the issue ofits stabilisation remained to be the key issuealso after the Parliamentary elections. Comingmonths will be difficult. But I believe that theNorth-Atlantic Alliance will cope with its task.You visited our troops in Iraq in person;what were your observations?First of all, I went to Iraq with the aim toback up our soldiers performing in one of themost demanding missions of Armed Forcesof the Slovak Republic in the world. There Icould get persuaded that we may be proudof them indeed. After my coming back home,in an interview given I quoted the words ofthe Commander of Multinational Forces,General George W. Casey. He told me that inthe event we had more such brave sappers athome we were kindly requested to send themto him without undue delay. I‘ll bet you thatit was not a polite phrase at all. I couldget persuaded myself that they arereally brave soldiers, great specialistsand open and fair guys. Despitenumerous complications they80perform their job well and they can really provethat they are professionals indeed.Let us focus on the issue of restructuringthe armament from the viewpoint of thefunds as not only the Defence Ministryhas to deal with the outstanding problemrelated to finance.In our conceptual documents there isprecisely outlined a direction of the SlovakArmed Forces. To modernise them is aninevitable step towards the army-building.Army will play a dignified role among the allieswithin the North-Atlantic Alliance and on top ofthat it will be able to protect its own citizens. Imean not only the war conflicts and terrorismbut also liquidation of consequences causedby natural disasters. Some people say thatthis procedure takes its time, slowly ongoing.Notwithstanding, we have to take into accountthe realistic conditions of Slovakia‘s economy.I may ensure you that modernisation of thearmy and its adaptation to new trends is one ofpriorities of my team. It is an investment intofuture and we all may benefit from it.Slovak Army has got a great number ofvarious material stocks of no use fromthe past. Some others becoming obsoletewill join them due to material fatigueand also as a result of restructuring thearmament. And it is and it will be verydifficult task to get rid of them. Actuallythere is no way out. Is there any solutionexisting to cope with?Simply speaking, we‘ve got two options. Eitherwe shall sell the exceeding military equipmentor we shall liquidate it at our own costs. Fromthis viewpoint, the first option seems to bemore reasonable and more efficient, i.e., to sellat the best possible price. But this procedureis subject to a very strict inspection and audit.The firm which intends to deal with the militaryequipment has to have a licence permit issuedby the Ministry of Economy. And it is obvious,that in the public tender it has to quote a bid atthe highest price of all.Are both troops and air force beinginvolved in the international exercises?Of course. International exercises BlueFrontier 2004 was held at the airport Sliačnear Zvolen on 11 - 14 October. Mission ofthe exercises was to improve the readinessof Armed Forces of both Slovak and CzechRepublics to face new security risks in the 21stcentury while solving the crisis situations ofmilitary and non-military character. Air forcesof both involved countries performed theexercises with the aim to check the abilitiesand capabilities of team performance againstpeace-breakers and trespassers of air-spacewithin the „joint air-space“ within the frameworkof Air Policing and they were trained to exerciseco-operation while providing logistic support toemergency fleets - Air Cross Servicing.The controllers of the exercises, Vice-Commander of joint forces, Air ForceCommander of the Czech Republic, BrigadeGeneral Ladislav Minařík and Air Force Vice-Commander of Armed Forces of the SlovakRepublic, Brigade General Jozef Krakovský,highly evaluated a professional approach ofparticipants of the exercises during operationsand they agreed that the exercises hadproved full compatibility of both countrieswhile performing against peace-breakersand trespassers of joint air-space. They gotpersuaded that air forces of both countrieswere able and capable to co-perform jointlyin air-space.They appreciated the fact that during theexercises the security of flights‘ operation inair-space of the Slovak and Czech Republicshad not been disturbed.Exercises Blue Frontier-2004 pointed out tothe necessity to stick with solving the issuesrelated to mutual co-operation in near futureand to develop it further within the project JointHeaven.Recently, there were the informationreleased from the Defence Ministry ofthe Slovak Republic about the fact thatprofessionalization of the army plannedby 2006 may be implemented a bit earlier.To be exact, that there is a sufficientnumber of those who are interested inmilitary profession and even that you arenot interested anymore in applicants registeredat labour offices. Is it really so?Our conceptual documents cover the factthat Slovakia si going to have professionalarmy in 2006. These are grounds we follow.Any other considerations are at the level ofdiscussions only for the time being. Recently, welaunched a campaign aimed at making youngpeople deeper interested in military serviceand changing its image. Military service will besoon understood as a mission and not the duty.Our target is to occupy 82 per cent vacancieswith military professionals in Armed Forces bythe end of this year.What kind of assistance are we providedby the N.A.T.O. and the N.A.T.O. membercountries while bringing up military professionals?First, we may speak about the exchangeof knowledge and experience between thespecialists. We are part of the strongest militaryand political configuration in the world.Armed Forces have got a unique opportunityto be compared to each other to those bestof the best and to take part in joint exercisesthanks to which their professionalism is beingmastered unambiguously. We are also providedwith space for our science and research byN.A.T.O. Under these circumstances we arebuilding new professional army what can beundoubtedly treated positively.We are just in the mid of electoral period.Can you tell us the goals outlined for thesecond electoral period?I mentioned the Armed Forces reform severaltimes already. It became one of my personalpriorities, to be exact. By the end of this year,we want to present a new security and defencestrategy of the Slovak Republic at which we