US envoy raps Czech Republic for lagging on defence spending

PRAGUE, Sept 18 (Reuters) – 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.

(Reporting by Jan Lopatka; Editing by Toby Chopra)