With the upcoming 70 years of NATO celebration coming up in London this week, Czechia decided to add to the festive mood and announce they are adding 42 million crowns to the annual budget. Currently Czechia pays about 580 million crowns a year, or about 1.2% of GDP. The target for NATO countries is 2% of GDP.
Donald Trump will be present and is expected to announce that the USA will be lowering its financing of the organization from 22% to 16% of the 2.5 Billion USD NATO budget. He will be pressing others to pay their fair share and take up a more active role in Afghanistan, which seems to be a major thorn in the side of recent US Presidents. Hopefully the extra nearly 2 million dollars Czechia just volunteered will keep them off the hate list.
President Milos Zeman will be attending the event with three other ministers. Zeman likes to point out that when he was in charge of the government, Czechia paid the full 2% commitment. According to current plans, Czechia plans to fulfill the 2% of GDP goal in 2024.
Although originally the meeting’s sole purpose was the 70 year celebration, the group decided to use the get together as an opportunity to discuss some pressing business; the usual suspects: Russia, China, Afghanistan and the Middle East.
