P. Gajdoš: NATO Allies pledge to refund 100 per cent of the costs of our demining project in Iraq

NATO Allies have pledged to refund the total costs of the ongoing Slovak demining project in Iraq via the NATO Defence Capacity Building (DCB) Trust Fund. The project was prepared by a specialist SVK MOD and GS team in close collaboration with the Permanent Delegation of the Slovak Republic to NATO. The MOD was in discussions with Allies and received their pledge to refund the overall costs of the project. This means the MOD will deliver €1,038,000 of savings for the tax payers.

 
SVK Minister of Defence Peter Gajdoš emphasised: “Also in this way our Allies have expressed how highly they value our contribution to global security. The fact that we can save our tax payers more than a million euros from the state budget is yet another proof that the SVK MOD, under the SNS leadership, is committed to using the resources of the Slovak Republic and its citizens efficiently.”

Several Allied countries, i.e. Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, Luxembourg and Croatia have decided to contribute to the project via the NATO DCB Trust Fund. This is an expression of unity and high consideration for the work of SVK demining trainers serving in Iraq.
 
SVK soldiers in Iraq are training Iraqi Security Forces (ISF) personnel not only in demining at Camp Besmaya, but they are also working closely with Poland in the field of maintenance and repairs of Soviet-era military equipment at Camp Taji. The mission of the SVK Armed Forces in Iraq is not in a combat role, but they are on the ground under NATO’s non-combat training activity, which is being implemented with the consent of the Republic of Iraq.
 
On Monday (5 March 2018), NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg visited Camp Besmaya, where Allied trainers from the Slovak, Canadian and Spanish Armed Forces are working alongside each other in Iraq.