Prime Minister Andrej Babiš wants to travel to the NATO summit in Ankara instead of President Petr Pavl and himself defend the low Czech defense spending. Pavel is surprised.
Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš would like to go to the July NATO summit in Ankara instead of President Petr Pavle. He said this on Wednesday in an interview for Czech Television with the justification that he would better explain why the Czech Republic could not spend more money on defense. Until now, the Czech Republic was usually represented at Alliance summits by the head of state. Pavel responded by saying that Babiš did not mention this intention to him, although they talked for an hour on Tuesday. He sees no reason to change habits, informs the correspondent of TASR in Prague.
- Czech Prime Minister Andrej Babiš wants to go to the July NATO summit in person.
- He cites the belief that he will better defend lower Czech defense spending as the reason.
- Babiš plans to go to the summit together with Minister of Foreign Affairs Petr Macink.
- President Petr Pavel did not hear about this intention from Babiš during the previous negotiations.
- Pavel sees no reason to change the practice of having the Czech Republic represented by the president.
Babiš defends his participation
“I think it will be best if I go there with Macinka, because we will explain it better than the president, who criticizes us for it,” said Babiš, referring to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Petar Macinka. When asked if he was counting on the fact that he would go to the summit, he answered yes.
The President was surprised by Babiš’s words. He sees no reason to change. “We had a long meeting yesterday when we talked about many coordination measures and he didn’t mention anything like that. I assume that there should be a valid reason for such a change, and I don’t see one yet. I will be happy to talk to the Prime Minister about it,” added Pavel.
Preparations for the summit in Ankara
The NATO summit will take place on July 7-8 in Ankara. In addition to the president, the minister of foreign affairs and the minister of defense are also part of the delegation.
