Today the Slovak parliament officially endorsed the plan to withdraw Slovak troops from the KFOR mission in Kosovo.
“We stated 18 months ago already that we would be pulling our units out of Kosovo. In line with the government manifesto, we will focus on fewer missions, but of higher quality. Our key priority is the ISAF operation in Afghanistan”, said defense minister Lubomir Galko.
The withdrawal of the troops from Kosovo should be complete by the end of November and cost in the range of EUR 1.5 million. Just now there are 138 Slovak soldiers stationed in Kosovo, which ironically Slovakia doesn’t even recognise as a country. Slovak has had a small presence of troops there since September 1999.
Slovak troops will still be stationed in Bosnia and Herzegovina as part of the ALTHEA mission.