Allied forces – including Slovak Armed Forces personnel – have been strengthening security on NATO's eastern flank in the Baltics for five years

NATO's enhanced Forward Presence Battlegroup Latvia (NATO eFP BG LVA) – in which SVK service personnel are serving – has been demonstrating the Alliance's strength, unity and resolve to defend all of its members.

In 2017, four NATO multinational battlegroups came into existence in the Baltics, including in Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and Poland. Their aim was to bolster the defence and deterrence of the Alliance's eastern flank as further confirmation of Allied solidarity and determination to abide by NATO's collective defence commitment, meaning an attack on one member is an attack on all.

SVK service personnel have been on rotational deployment to Latvia since 2018. So far, 908 SVK soldiers (46 servicewomen) have rotated in and out of NATO's eFP BG LVA. The latest rotation of the eFP Battlegroup saw SVK artillery troops, equipped with ZUZANA 2 SpGHs, replace our mechanised units. The mission of the Slovak Contingent, based in the Ādaži Training Area, is to provide artillery support to NATO's eFP BG LVA and to deliver indirect fire support (IFS) against the enemy positions. Members of the SVK Armed Forces continue to serve standard 6-month tours, but when COVID-19 got in the way in 2020, they served a 12-month tour.

Speaking on the occasion of 5 years of NATO's eFP in the Baltics, Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď said: “For the Slovak Armed Forces service personnel, the Slovak operational deployment to Latvia is a unique opportunity to test our capability to deploy forces and assets to an allied setting outside of Slovakia. Our Allies highly appreciate our artillery capability as it markedly increases the overall combat efficiency of the battlegroup.” In response to Russia's aggression against Ukraine, he underpinned the importance of NATO's Multinational Battlegroup Slovakia (NATO MN BG SVK).