Foreign minister says PM to lead Czech NATO delegation, president to attend

Czech Foreign Minister Petr Macinka says Prime Minister Andrej Babiš will lead the Czech delegation to next week's NATO summit in Ankara. Speaking on CNN Prima News on Sunday, he also indicated that President Petr Pavel would attend the meeting, adding that the government would announce the final composition of the delegation on Monday.

The government and the president have been at odds for months over who should head the delegation. The government argues that defence spending, a key topic of the summit, falls within its remit. However, the Constitutional Court has ordered that President Pavel be accredited and provided with full support to attend.

According to Macinka, the court's interim ruling did not overturn the government's decision naming the prime minister as head of the delegation. Deputy Prime Minister Alena Schillerová said the court's decision must be respected and that the public would learn on Monday that the president had been accredited.