Prague, Feb 10 (CTK) – Central Europe has long been afraid that the U.S. is turning away from it, but now it shows that this is not true and it will depend on how the countries more threatened by Russia, including the Czech Republic, will make use of this, the latest issue of weekly Respekt writes.
Jiri Sobota and Ondrej Kundra write that President Barack Obama’s administration announced last week that it will dramatically raise its spending on security in central and East Europe, from 789 million dollars to almost 3.5 billion next year.
This means that a U.S. fully armed brigade of 3,000 to 5,000 soldiers will be permanently deployed in East Europe complete with hardware and advanced military materiel stores, the authors write.
The United States has thus reacted to the Russian intervention in Ukraine and the occupation of a part of Ukrainian territory, provocations in the air space and coastal waters of the NATO member countries, Russia’ s destructive joining of the complex war in Syria as well as uncertain further economic developments in Russia, Sobota and Kundra write.
They write that the Moscow regime under strain may decide to take military steps to preserve its position at home, but it can also be unexpectedly toppled and replaced by an even worse and more aggressive one.
The United States is not the sole country reacting this way to the worsening security situation. This also applies to Germany, Britain or France, Sobota and Kundra write.
They write that the former centre-right Czech political establishment called for a bigger U.S. involvement, while at the same time it was unable to push through an important component of it, a radar base.
The base was to be built in the former Brdy military district, central Bohemia, to protect the United States and a big part of Europe against missiles that states like Iran and North Korea might launch. However, Obama’s first government cancelled the project in 2009.
Sobota and Kundra write that the current centre-left government is rhetorically less pro-Atlantic than the previous governments, but behind-the-scenes, it is preparing several large defence projects that could be in tune with the United States’ appetite for more investments.
The Czech projects include the purchase of new helicopters and the upgrading of the air defence. A part of the government inclines towards buying U.S Patriots in the future, the authors write.
They write that the current government’s different attitude is also seen in other fields.
For instance, Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky would like to change the situation where the U.S.-headed NATO has not practically held any military exercises aimed to deter Moscow on Czech territory and where the Americans never asked Czechs when fine-tuning their strategy in relation to Russia, Sobota and Kundra write.
That is why Stropnicky plans to pay this year his second visit to the United States since he became minister two years ago, they write.
True, many things are on the verbal level for the time being, but not only the White House is turning its interest to Central Europe. The region itself is cautiously realising that it is time to start safeguarding its own security more, Sobota and Kundra write.
