“On Thursday, we acted together in the presence of the Minister of Defense and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, and of course we also talked about defense spending, which is important to us. One of the priorities is building a bigger army than we have,” said Babiš at a press conference.
The prime minister then added: “We agreed that our teams would exchange numbers to make it clear what the percentages are. The GDP is rising constantly. In 2014, we were at 42 billion, and before we left the government, we reached over ninety billion.”
“The Ankara summit will focus on further strengthening these experiences. Defense spending is important so that we have the resources and capabilities to keep our people safe,” reminded Rutte.
“Of course we know, and this applies to all alliance partners, that there are difficulties in terms of the budget and the allocation of more funds for defense. However, security is the basis of prosperity and when there is no security, society and the economy suffer,” he added.
The two leaders met on Thursday in the early evening at the Government Office. According to the pre-published program, the meeting of both delegations was supposed to last about half an hour. Neither side announced in advance what its content would be.
The government has before it negotiations with representatives of the alliance on the fulfillment of defense obligations. Last year, the government of Petr Fiala (ODS) joined the new plan to spend 3.5 percent of the gross domestic product directly on defense by 2035 and another 1.5 percent on related expenses. But Babiš refuses this commitment.
NATO countries will meet at the beginning of July at a summit in Ankara, where the prime minister wants to explain to the allies why the Czech Republic is lagging behind in increasing spending. The Americans had already objected to a hesitant approach.
