The Prime Minister of the Czech Republic plans to prevent the participation of the head of state in the future NATO summit

For the July NATO summit in Ankara will not have its President Petr Pavel in the official delegation of the Czech Republic. This was reported by local media with reference to members of the Czech government.

It is reported that the Czech Republic will be represented by Prime Minister Andrei Babis, Defense Minister Jaromir Zuna and Foreign Minister Petr Matsinka. President Pavel will not go with them. It is noted that the head of the Czech government believes that now it is more expedient for Prague to be represented by a government that has approved the budget and knows the strategy for the coming years.

As Babish noted earlier, his and Petr Macinka's participation in NATO is logical, as the government will be better able to explain to allies, including US President Donald Trump, the level of current defense spending in the Czech budget, which President Pavel previously criticized as too low. According to the prime minister, earlier there were ordinary summits when it was not necessary to protect the Czech budget or strategy.

Earlier, the Czech president participated in all NATO summits since taking office — in 2023 in Vilnius, in 2024 in Washington and last year in The Hague. Pavel himself said two weeks ago that he sees no reason to change the usual order of participation at the alliance summits.