New Challenges - Better Capabilities

Significant figures of the international security will arrive to Bratislava to participate in the Bratislava conference and subsequent informal NATO Defence Ministers Meeting. As the NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has informed, the future progress of the allies in Afghanistan will be in the centre of attention in Bratislava.

A few hours before the official opening of the Ministerial Meeting, Minister of Defence of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Eimert van Middelkoop, will discuss this topic together with other defence ministers. Despite being the key partner of the Slovak Republic in Afghanistan, Netherlands is considering the withdrawal of its troops from the mission. A number of well-known security analysts from the United States and Europe will take part at the conference as well.

NATO mission in Afghanistan is considered to be the key mission. Thereby, the whole credibility as well as the future of the Alliance depends on it. If NATO loses in Afghanistan, confidence in the common purposes of the allies will be undermined. Inspite of the most recent demand in general McChrystal’s report to increase the number of the troops immediately, several countries announced their intention to pull out from Afghanistan. Commander of the Allied Forces in Afghanistan warns against the risk of the aggravation of the security situation if the number of the troops does not increase. Taliban is getting stronger and the attacks on the NATO soldiers intensify. 

Life-stream from the conference on the website www.ncbc.sk will also be available for the wider public. Due to the set of videoconferences included in the program by the organizers, students from four prestigious Central European universities will have the possibility to actively participate in the conference. Faculty of the Political Sciences and International Relations of the Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica, Central European University in Budapest, Masaryk University in Brno as well as National Defence University in Warsaw participate in this project.

International security conference „New Challenges – Better Capabilities“ is the accompanying conference to the NATO Defence Ministers Meeting in Bratislava. It is organized by the Slovak Atlantic Commission in cooperation with the Ministry of Defence of the Slovak Republic, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic and NATO Public Division and it will take place in the historic building of the National Council of the Slovak Republic in Bratislava.

Bratislava, 20.10.2009
Slovak Atlantic Commission
For more information visit our website www.ncbc.sk