According to Czech President Petr Pavle, Europe must be strong enough to stand up for itself if necessary. According to him, the key is for it to have a stronger position within NATO and thus bear more responsibility for its defense.
In short:
- Europe must be able to defend itself and have a stronger position in NATO
- Building a stronger European pillar in NATO is supposed to bring about a real shift of the burden
- NATO and the European Union are supposed to complement each other in terms of security, but they are blocked by disputes between some members
In a speech at the Globsec Forum security conference in Prague on Thursday, he also emphasized the importance of EU cooperation with NATO and the necessity of continued assistance to Ukraine. In addition, he pointed out that Europe fell asleep in the field of technological development in the field of defense, reports TASR correspondent in Prague.
Europe and its defense
According to Pavle, Europe must take greater responsibility for its own defense not because Washington is telling it to, but because it is its strategic and vital interest. “The main task that awaits us is to build a politically, militarily, industrially and operationally stronger European pillar within NATO. This means a fundamental rebalancing within the Alliance, a real transfer of the burden, not just its distribution,” said the president.
He pointed out that NATO and the EU do not compete with each other in the field of European security, but should complement each other and cooperate more. At a briefing later, he told journalists that when he himself wanted to achieve some concrete improvement in cooperation with the EU during his tenure as chairman of the NATO Military Committee (where he was from 2015 to 2018), the negotiations ended up being blocked.
“Each institution has its own rules and, unfortunately, there are contradictions among some members that are not resolved and that block closer cooperation between the two institutions. It is mainly Greece and Turkey regarding Cyprus,” he explained. He added that in the interest of both institutions and all participating states, these disputes should be resolved.
Support of Ukraine
In his speech, the Czech President also emphasized that it is necessary to continue supporting Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression. “Supporting Ukraine is not charity, it is a direct investment in European security. Because if Ukraine succeeds, Europe will be safer. If it is forced into a bad peace, we will all live with the consequences for decades,” the president warned.
According to him, he is pleased that the Czech government has realized the challenge facing not only the Czech Republic, and fully supports its efforts to spend an amount at least two percent of GDP on defense this year.
Technologies of the future
After the speech, Pavel discussed with retired American general John R. Allen about technologies as weapons of the future and how Europe is prepared in this regard. He then told journalists that, in his opinion, she was not sufficiently prepared. “Europe did not realize in time how fast the onset of technology would be, and assumed that it would probably have more time. When we see how fast China and the United States are moving, Europe must really speed up significantly. Not only when it comes to investments in research and development, but also about creating the conditions for European research to be as effective as possible,” Pavel pointed out. According to him, not only finances are needed, but also the joining of scientists into teams or the removal of bureaucratic obstacles.
