US NATO envoy responds to Czech defence spending

US ambassador to NATO Matthew Whitaker called on allies to meet their defence spending commitments after Czech lawmakers approved a 2026 budget with reduced military spending.

Whitaker stressed that allies must honour their commitments: ‘These numbers are not arbitrary. They are about meeting conditions. These requirements set five per cent as the standard. No excuses, no exceptions.’

The lower house of the Czech parliament approved Prime Minister Andrej Babiš’s government budget proposal, which estimates defence spending at 154.8 billion Czech korunas (about 6.3 billion euros). This corresponds to roughly 1.73 per cent of gross domestic product.

This level is below NATO’s target of two per cent of gross domestic product, which member states have long pledged to meet. At the same time, at last year’s summit in The Hague, the allies committed to gradually increasing defence spending to 3.5 per cent of GDP and an additional 1.5 per cent for defence-related investments over the next decade.

The Czech ministry of finance noted that total defence spending should reach 2.07 per cent of gross domestic product. However, the country’s Budget Council pointed out that this amount also includes spending from other ministries, such as projects by the ministry of transport, which NATO may not recognise as defence spending.

(reuters, max)