Today we decided on the mandate and composition of the delegation of the Czech Republic for the NATO summit in Ankara; our country will be represented by a government delegation consisting of the Prime Minister, the Minister of Defense, and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. The reasons are purely practical.
The summit will discuss defense spending in 2025, when the Fiala government assured all citizens, but mainly our NATO partners, that it would reach 2% and fulfill the commitment. That did not happen, and now we will be in a position where we will have to explain why it happened. Of course, it will also be about the plan for the following years, and we want to explain in what state we took over the budget, that our current spending is currently the maximum possible, and at the same time that security, defense, and fulfilling alliance commitments are a priority for us.
It is customary, and it was the case at the last summit as well, that the same leaders who then negotiate during the main session on Saturday also attend the informal Friday dinner. Last year, 18 members of the European Council, in which I sit and with whom I of course know well, attended both days. If the impression has arisen that this Friday informal dinner is not important, the opposite is true. It may even be more important, because if you want to talk to someone or negotiate something, that is exactly the space for it.
Talks that this is deliberately from our side against Mr. President or that we are forbidding him something are absolute nonsense. During his term, Mr. President has completed 61 foreign trips, and just under our government, in those 6 months, he has visited 12 countries. Two weeks ago, we approved Mr. President to head the delegation to the UN General Assembly, which will not be as working-oriented and will be more about representing our country.
: Andrej Babiš
Prime Minister of the Czech Republic