ABSTRACT
Slovakia became an independent state after the division of Czechoslovakia in 1993 and its security orientation were not clearly transparent at that time. On the basis of an intergovernmental agreement, the US Air Force uses the air base in Kuchyna in western Slovakia for its exercises. Military-to-military relations are well developed, and Slovakia's relations with NATO have been well established especially since 1999. The security policy of the Slovak Republic following the big political change after 1998 has abandoned tactics and assumed firm features of a long-term strategy. The openly pro-American language of the Vilnius Group declaration on Iraq at the Prague summit that reportedly shocked some European governments, notably France and Germany, was subject to vivid discussion in the Slovak media. In the Slovak position, one emphasizes the need of a document being relevant for 450 million people. For this reason, Slovakia demands the discussion about form, structure and substance of the European Security Strategy.
