The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is an alliance of states of which Czechia is a member. Within the alliance, the Czech army contributes mainly to the defence of its eastern flank.
On 30 September 2026 the Senate approved a proposal for foreign army missions under which at most 1,600 Czech soldiers may be sent over the next two years to defend NATO's eastern flank, which is 400 fewer than until now. Defence Minister Jaromír Zůna (for SPD) justified the reduction by savings and by the fact that the previous ceiling had not been filled. The chair of the Senate defence committee, Pavel Fischer (for TOP 09), expressed reservations about the reduction in view of the policy of deterrence [1].
According to the government, 427 Czech soldiers were deployed in Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania and Latvia in May 2026. The proposal also allows for possible deployment in Estonia, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and, newly, Finland, depending on the alliance's needs. The number of soldiers in the NATO mission in Iraq and in Kuwait is to be reduced from 20 to half of that. As in the previous two years, the proposal also allows up to 2,000 soldiers of NATO member states to operate in Czechia. The mission was still to be approved by the Chamber of Deputies [1].
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš (ANO), before flying to the alliance summit in Ankara in July 2026, promised to raise defence spending by 36 billion crowns. The draft state budget for 2027 provides the Ministry of Defence with spending of 190.86 billion crowns, compared with 154.8 billion this year. According to the Czech News Agency, in recent months Czechia faced criticism from allies for low defence spending and for not meeting the commitment of two percent of GDP for defence [2].
President Petr Pavel stated on 30 September 2026, after talks with Romanian President Nicușor Dan, that the alliance's states must make clear their determination to defend their airspace and coastal waters. Pavel was in Romania at the May summit of the Bucharest Nine (B9), which brings together the countries of NATO's eastern flank [3][4].