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For the Czechs after Afghanistan and NATO, the EU?

(BRUSSELS2) The presentation today (8 November) of the new Czech defense policy gave rise to "contrasting" speeches between the Chief of the Army Staff, Petr Pavel, and the President of the Republic Vaclav Klaus. For the latter, Afghanistan signals a return home for the Czech military, the end of large-scale external (expeditionary) commitments, and activities carried out within the framework of the Alliance. " Army units will need to emphasize training mission activities, both domestically as well as within the Alliance ". The tempo of the Czech army has indeed been raised over the past fifteen years with the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan added the Minister of Defense, Alexandr Vondra, advocating a return to more traditional missions, the defense of the territory. A change in strategy that poorly hides very economic reasons. The Czech army is engaged in a major restructuring with a White Paper on defense (also!) and the loss of 1600 jobs by 2014!

Chief of Staff Petr Pavel therefore brought some "nuances" - let's put it like that - to his political authorities. For him, the reduction in commitments means an intensification of the training missions that should take place “ not only in the country but also outside it ". And after Afghanistan, "we will seek partial compensation through our involvement in operations under the aegis of the EU he explains. We are thinking in Prague of involvement in the EUTM Somalia mission - to train the Somali military - or even in the anti-piracy operation Eunavfor Atalanta, but perhaps also (the Chief of Staff did not expressly mention it) in the future EUTM Mali mission which should receive the first official green light on November 19 at the meeting of Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs, on November 19 in Brussels (with one drawback, there are few French speakers in the Czech army ).

Nicolas Gros Verheyde

Chief editor of the B2 site. Graduated in European law from the University of Paris I Pantheon Sorbonne and listener to the 65th session of the IHEDN (Institut des Hautes Etudes de la Défense Nationale. Journalist since 1989, founded B2 - Bruxelles2 in 2008. EU/NATO correspondent in Brussels for Sud-Ouest (previously West-France and France-Soir).

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