Czechs will not meet pledge to NATO to spend 2 percent of GDP on defence

Czechs will not meet pledge to NATO to spend 2 percent of GDP on defence

The Czech Republic will not fulfil its pledge to NATO to spend 2 percent of its GDP on defence by the year 2024. The minister of finance, Alena Schillerová, made a statement to that effect after discussions of the Ministry of Defence’s budget on Wednesday. The minister of defence, Lubomír Metnar, said the main thing was that the trajectory of spending on defence was headed toward 2 percent.

The Czech Republic has repeatedly committed itself to reaching that level of military spending by 2024, with both Prime Minister Andrej Babiš and President Miloš Zeman promising that it would happen.