The Czech government intends to ignore US calls to increase defense spending to 155 billion Czech crowns (the dollar equals 22 crowns), which amounts to 1.73% of GDP, Czech television reported. Prague radio reported that the leaders of all three coalition parties confirmed this before the final vote on the state budget for 2026, scheduled for the day after tomorrow. US Ambassador to Prague, Nicholas Merik, said at a security conference last Thursday that the amount the Czech Republic plans to spend on defense will make it far from its commitments from last year's NATO summit in The Hague, which stipulated that defense spending should be 5% of GDP.
