President Pavel calls Czech delegation’s participation at NATO summit a diplomatic debacle

President Petr Pavel described the participation of the Czech delegation at the NATO summit in Ankara as a diplomatic debacle. However, he acknowledged that not everyone may see the situation the same way. According to him, the Czech Republic failed to make a positive impression, and the fact that allies did not mention the country in a negative context was merely a matter of diplomatic courtesy. He also praised some of the government's domestic and foreign policy steps and rejected claims that he has been undermining the government.

According to Pavel, within the North Atlantic Alliance, praise is usually expressed openly and by name, while criticism tends to be phrased in a way that the intended recipient understands it without being singled out explicitly. “That is why, for example, (U.S. President) Donald Trump said at the beginning of his speech that all allies, with one specific exception, had understood the importance of increasing defence spending,” Pavel noted. He added that the “specific exception” was the Czech Republic and that, in his view, all allied countries knew this.