The Czech Republic ignores America’s call to increase defense spending

The Czech government intends to ignore US calls to increase defense spending from 155 billion Czech crowns ($22), equivalent to 1.73% of GDP, Czech television reported.

Prague Radio reported that the heads of all three coalition parties confirmed this before the final vote on the state budget for 2026, scheduled for the day after tomorrow. The American ambassador in Prague, Nicholas Merek, had said at a security conference last Thursday that the amount that the Czech Republic intends to spend on defense would make it very far from its commitments from the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit in The Hague last year, that defense spending would reach 5% of gross domestic product.