Czechs present rising defence spending plan in NATO

The Czech Republic has presented a plan to increase its defence budget and modernise its armed forces, specifically the plans of investments, in NATO, Czech ambassador to NATO Jiri Sedivy told journalists on Wednesday. Along with the growing participation of Czech troops in NATO operations, this means that the Czech Republic does have not to feel ashamed of anything, Sedivy said. "We have stopped the fall and in the past three years, we increased the defence spending in real figures," the ambassador added. Prague is not among the capitals of several European countries to which Washington sent the letters criticising their small defence budgets before the summit. With its defence spending of 1.04 percent of GDP last year, the Czech Republic is among the countries that are the farthest from the set target of 2 percent of GDP.