Security does not end at the borders of their own country: the presidents of the Visegrad States are United. You are willing to spend a lot of money.
NATO maneuvers in Poland in the year 2016
The Prague trams were decorated on Tuesday with the flags of the Czech Republic and the North Atlantic Alliance. The U-Bahn welcomed your passengers with the note that the country is not appear before 20 years of NATO.
“Dear fellow citizens”: With these words the Czech President Václav Havel began at that time, one of the shortest Speeches he has ever given. In the first three sets, he stressed the historical importance of the just signed Protocol on the accession to NATO of the Czech Republic, whose security “is guaranteed, after many centuries of dramatic existence,” finally, “and good”.
In three sentences he allowed himself a personal note: “When I was ten years ago in prison, I did not suspect yet that I will announce in two years, in the name of the Warsaw Pact, the dissolution and after a further eight years in the name of the Czech Republic’s accession to NATO will sign.”
The man who spent a tenth of his life behind bars, because he had fought during the dictatorship in the former Czechoslovakia for the freedom of his fellow citizens, ended his speech with the words: “I have every reason to be my fate to be grateful.”
Learn from history
Similar to Vaclav Havel, 20 years ago today, the President-in-office of the Visegrad countries (the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary) rely on the history of their countries, when they talk about the importance of NATO membership.
Duda: The poles are in all places around the world where NATO is present
János Ader of Hungary has counted on Tuesday in Prague, the “lost battles of the Hungarian Nation for their freedom”. All of these defeats of his countrymen made clear that, “We are alone, we have no allies.” That’s why 85 percent of Hungary in 1997 in a Referendum for a NATO-would your country’s accession, voted in favour. “People have understood that the destiny has given us a Chance, and it would be a mistake to miss it,” said the Hungarian head of state.
His Polish counterpart, Andrzej Duda recalled that Poland in 1939 was in an Alliance with France and the United Kingdom. The two States declared Nazi Germany to the war, but they attacked it and did not help the poles. Therefore, he always stress that the presence of NATO troops in his country is necessary: “the poles really believe in the Alliance.” The decision of the NATO presence on the Eastern flank is for him the final proof that these countries “no Russian zone of influence are more”.
The Czech head of state Miloš Zeman – who was at the NATO accession of his country, the Premier made reference to the story, but in a different context: “Somewhere in Qatar to negotiate with the Taliban, in the hope that the Tiger is a vegetarian. I would like to warn that the above-mentioned negotiations behind the backs of the Afghan government to take place because we, the Czechs, in the case of negotiations about us, without us sensitive – because of the memories of the Munich agreement.”
“Our soldiers to die”
The Central idea of all the Speeches at the Ceremony in Prague: The security of a state ends at its borders. For this reason, the Czech Republic participating in the Mission in Afghanistan and Hungary on the protection of the airspace of the Baltic States, declared the President. For this reason, the poles are in all places around the world where NATO is present, said the Polish head of state: they participate in the coalition against the so-called Islamic state, in Afghanistan, in the Baltics, the Balkans, Romania, and Africa, Duda.
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NATO in Poland
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NATO-member Poland wants permanent U.S. soldiers in the country
“Our soldiers are dying”: With these words, he turned to the Czech hosts, the voice of the 14 Czech soldiers fallen in the Afghan Mission. “You have to die to protect our States. Had they not been there, where the potential disturbance are herds – who knows, whether there had not been major security threats in our part of Europe,” said Duda.
Two percent of GDP for defense
Safety it is not for nothing: The all participants of the presidential debate in the Spanish hall of the Prague castle clear. The issue of defence spending repeated itself again and again. Poland already complies with the obligation, two percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) for defense spending. A recently passed law obliged to Warsaw, spending by 2030 to 2.5 percent raise, but Duda proposes to achieve this goal in 2024, when the development of the economy allows. The other three Visegrad countries committed themselves to achieve by 2024, the Two-percent target.
“Our Work must not be Vladimir Putin’s help, the columns of the Alliance and the democratic System to undermine the will, this is the basis of our strength,” warned the former US Secretary of state Madeleine Albright at the Ceremony in Prague – in terms of those NATO member States which consider that other priorities were more important. “In NATO we are talking about the necessity of two per cent for the defence”, said the Prague-born US-American. “We need to be a hundred percent for the democracy. Not only in our words but in our deeds.”