“Because of some Article 5”: Fico said Slovakia will not fight for NATO allies

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico said he did not want his country to be drawn into a military conflict if Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty was invoked. He also criticized the “belligerent rhetoric” in Europe and questioned who exactly NATO countries were going to war with.

Fico stated this during a speech to students and hospital workers in Prešov.

“It seems that sometimes there is a tendency to replace the inability to solve problems such as illegal migration, competitiveness, high energy prices with the fact that we offer these belligerent talks: let’s fight. For God’s sake, who do we want to fight? Who?” said the Slovak prime minister.

Fico separately spoke about the possible application of NATO Article 5 , which provides for the principle of collective defense of the Alliance.

“Can you imagine, ladies and gentlemen, that Article 5 of the NATO treaty would be applied? Can anyone imagine that they would tell us: prepare 5 thousand soldiers, 10 thousand soldiers, and they will go fight somewhere? And we will not even know with whom, why and for what. I do not want Slovakia to be part of some military conflict because of some Article 5,” he said.

At the same time, Fico emphasized that Slovakia remains a member of NATO and values cooperation and commitments within the Alliance, but promised to do everything possible to ensure that the country is not drawn into an armed conflict.

It is worth noting that Article 5 does not automatically mean sending a certain number of troops . According to the North Atlantic Treaty, an attack on one ally is considered an attack on all, and each member state must provide assistance and determine the actions it considers necessary. These may, but are not required to, include the use of armed force.

As a reminder, earlier “Pryamiy” wrote that Russia is intensifying strikes near the borders of the Alliance countries. ISW believes that with such actions Moscow may be trying to put pressure on NATO and weaken support for Ukraine.

Analysts have also drawn attention to Russian drone flights near and over NATO countries. According to ISW, such incidents may give Russia the opportunity to assess the operation of air defense systems and the response of allies.

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