Czechia to help boost NATO battle group in Slovakia, says Pavel

Czechia will make a major contribution to a NATO plan to boost the alliance’s international battle group in Slovakia, President Petr Pavel told journalists at the start of a NATO summit in Vilnius on Tuesday. Czechia will have one mixed battalion in Slovakia, he said.

Reinforcing international units on NATO’s eastern flank is central to collective defence plans being discussed in Vilnius, with troop numbers in such groups expected to reach up to 5,000.

At the end of last year the Czech-headed unit based in Slovakia’s Lešť had 1,000 soldiers.