Torrejón Combined Air Operations Center joins Slovenia on its National Day

• The event was attended by the Balkan country's ambassador in Madrid

The Slovenian Ambassador, Robert Krmelj, has attended at the NATO Combined Air Operations Center, located in Torrejón de Ardoz (CAOCTJ), the celebration of the National Day of his country. The representation was received on arrival by the CAOCTJ Commander-in-Chief, Lieutenant General Juan Pablo Sanchez de Lara, and later joined the military ceremony in commemoration of the Slovenian National Day.

State Day (in Slovenian, 'Dan državnosti') is a holiday that takes place every June 25 in Slovenia to commemorate its declaration of independence from Yugoslavia in 1991. Although, the formal declaration did not occur until June 26, 1991, National Day is considered to be on June 25, as that was the date on which the initial laws regarding Independence were enacted and Slovenia became a sovereign country.

In his speech, Lieutenant General Sánchez de Lara reiterated the words of NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg in his address in Riga, Latvia, on Tuesday, June 11, where he stated that "NATO has the strength, resources, capabilities and political will to defend every ally. Our free societies based on the rule of law must be backed by a collective and credible transatlantic defense.

For Lieutenant General Sanchez de Lara, this is fully demonstrated by the example of Slovenia, a nation that provides personnel to the CAOCTJ and contributes to NATO's integrated air and missile defense (NATINAMDS) with its air control centers and radars. Meanwhile, the integrity of its airspace is ensured with rapid reaction aircraft from Italy and Hungary, demonstrating unity and cohesion and generating the necessary confidence.

The Slovenian ambassador said that, in addition to the thirty-third anniversary of the independence of his country, it is also the 20th anniversary of the incorporation of Slovenia into the European Union and NATO after the corresponding referendum. He acknowledged that a large part of the freedoms and prosperity of his country comes from the security provided by membership in an organization such as the Atlantic Alliance, especially after Russia's aggression against Ukraine, thanking the CAOCTJ staff for their work in defending the skies of southern Europe.