Interior minister to dismiss nuclear protection institute chief over training of Chinese experts

Interior Minister Lubomír Metnar says he will dismiss the head of the State Institute for Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Protection over the training of Chinese military experts at the facility. Speaking to Deník N on Thursday, he described the cooperation as a security risk.

According to the news site, experts from a military academy in Beijing have been attending courses at the institute near Příbram for the past three years. A training programme held in May reportedly cost almost CZK 800,000, with another planned for the autumn.

Institute director Tomáš Dropa told Deník N that the Chinese side had requested the training and that the cooperation benefited Czech research. Metnar said he wanted to discuss the matter with the intelligence services and determine what information the visitors may have obtained.