Saturday 23rd anniversary of Czech NATO accession

Saturday marks the 23rd anniversary of the Czech Republic’s becoming a full member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, on March 12, 1999. Two weeks earlier the then Czech president, Václav Havel, had signed the instruments of accession, thus completing the process of joining NATO’s structures.

Havel said at the time that joining the alliance gave Czechs great hope that they would never again be occupied or the victim of an aggressor.

Two other former Eastern Bloc states, Poland and Hungary, also jointed NATO at that time.