Prague will host a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in May, according to reports today from Seznam Zpravy. The event will bring together senior Western diplomats, including US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.
The Czech Foreign Ministry is expecting a budget of CZK 100 million for the event.
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky (Pirates) told Seznam Zpravy that the May meeting in Prague will be the largest NATO event in the Czech Republic since the summit in 2002.
“Holding this event will underline that the Czech Republic is actively participating in the security vision of the Western world and therefore in our own security. Secondly, the event will underline that we as the Czech Republic are ready to invest in NATO, both politically and financially,” Lipavsky said.
The Czech Foreign, Defence and Interior ministries will jointly finance the meeting. “We are working with a budget of CZK 100 million, but we do not know the final amount yet,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mariana Wernerova told Seznam Zpravy.
According to the report, the diplomatic discussions will be held in the Cernin Palace, the seat of the Foreign Ministry, and at Prague Castle.
The Czech Republic is celebrating 25 years since joining NATO this year. The symbolic culmination of the commemorative events will be the NATO Military Committee meeting in Prague on 13-15 September. The meeting of the NATO members’ chiefs of staff will take place in the Czech Republic for the first time and is expected to be attended by some 350 foreign guests. Czech President Petr Pavel, who served as NATO Military Committee chairman between 2015 and 2018, is also expected to attend informally.
