US envoy raps Czech Republic for lagging on defence spending

The Czech Republic must spend more ​on defence to meet required ​NATO targets, the US ambassador to ‌NATO ​told a conference in Prague on Friday. The Czech Republic has so far failed under successive governments to ‌meet even the minimum 2% NATO threshold of spending and will miss the target again this year before just achieving the level in 2027.

It has not set a ‌clear path toward NATO's 3.5% core defence spending target for 2035, plus 1.5% ‌on defence-related infrastructure, agreed at a summit in The Hague in 2025. "It is disappointing to see that (the Czech Republic) has not made more progress towards meeting the Hague defence commitment," Matthew Whitaker ⁠told ​the International Institute for ⁠Strategic Studies' Prague Defence Summit.

"Unfortunately, the Czech Republic is trending towards the bottom of the alliance ⁠when it comes to defence spending. It must remain committed to increasing defence spending. "This has ​been a message I've delivered yesterday and today in person, to our ⁠friends here in Czechia."

He said the United States remained committed to NATO and defending allied territory. "But ⁠we ​expect our allies to step up," he said. The Czech government under populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who returned to power at the end of 2025, ⁠cut defence spending proposed by the outgoing administration for this year to around 1.7-1.8% of ⁠gross domestic product, ⁠and plans to spend 2% next year.

Babis has argued that the country needed money for building infrastructure and hospitals and thus ‌had ‌limited resources for defence.