“Czech Republic will be able to commit much less than it was expected, and other allies will have to make up for it in future,” the NATO Defense Policy and Planning Committee report, quotes E15.cz.
More so, the size of the Czech military’s defense budget was a cause for concern among other NATO members, as the Czech government has not funded military equipment purchase as promised. In total, the Czech army only provided only half of proposed budget for NATO, which represents 20% of the total budget for their military.
Czech had also committed to increasing their military expenses up to 1,4% of GDP before 2020, a number which looks unlikely now.
According to Czech Ministry of Defense Press Secretary Jan Pejšek, the current criticism from NATO is connected to Czech military expenditure cuts over the past past few years.
“We find it positive, that the North Atlantic Alliance has appreciated our readiness to increase our military budget and take conceptually important measures. These two factors are what might influence our activities’ evaluation in future,” Pejšek commented.
The Czech Republic became a NATO member state in 1991, after the Warsaw Pact was disbanded, almost a year before the collapse of the Soviet Union.
