Military Analyst: NATO Summit Was Not a "Diplomatic Slap in the Face" for Czechia

The claim by Czech President Petr Pavel that the NATO summit in Ankara amounted to a "diplomatic slap in the face" for the country is not supported by the facts, according to military expert Lukáš Zůna, who commented on the outcome of the meeting. He noted that the session was closed, scripted in advance, and did not involve any public assessment of individual allies.

According to the analyst, the summit followed the same format as the most recent meeting of defense ministers in Brussels: NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte summarized three years of the Alliance's development, after which each country was given three minutes to outline its priorities and plans for fulfilling the commitments made at The Hague summit through 2035. There were no discussions or criticism of specific states, and Czechia's name came up only when it was called to speak.

US President Donald Trump stated that all allies had come to understand the importance of increasing defense spending, with one exception — which, according to Pavel, referred to Czechia. Prime Minister Andrej Babiš was originally scheduled to speak 27th, based on the country's 2025 defense spending level, but ended up speaking last.

Zůna said the discrepancy between the planned 27th slot and the actual final speaking position suggests that spending was not the only criterion used to determine the speaking order — other factors were also taken into account, including countries' military capabilities. The expert stressed that Czechia ranks among the Alliance's leaders in army modernization, the size of its armed forces, and the development of multi-purpose units, and that it actively participates in foreign missions, with Czech troops deployed in Latvia, Poland, and Slovakia along NATO's eastern flank.

Asked whether the country's final speaking slot could have been a political signal from its allies, the analyst said he had no information to either confirm or rule out such an interpretation.

The expert also commented separately on Czechia's decision to contribute 140 million koruna to the PURL program, which helps Ukraine defend itself against Russian ballistic missiles. He explained that the funds come from the CAP program, originally earmarked for Czechia: had the country declined them, the entire package would have automatically gone to Ukraine without any oversight from Prague over how the money was used. That is why the Czech Foreign Ministry decided to channel the funds into the US-administered PURL fund instead, where distribution is transparent and donor countries can influence how the aid to Ukraine is actually used.

Around Prague, based on reporting by novinky.cz