Prime Minister Petr Fiala signed an agreement between the two countries on security cooperation and long-term support with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the summit of the European Political Community (EPC) in Britain today. Fiala told reporters this morning that the agreement was not a legally binding international treaty but was an important symbol. According to him, it frames the existing cooperation and creates space for future cooperation.
After the signing, Zelenskyj thanked the Czech Prime Minister, according to him, the agreement is the next step for expanding cooperation between the two countries in the field of security.
The document has several chapters, for example, in the section dedicated to security and defense, according to Fiala, it is specified how the Czech Republic helps Ukraine, i.e. not only by supplying military equipment, but also by training soldiers. The text also deals with economic cooperation, according to the Prime Minister, Czech companies in Ukraine have a lot of room for involvement in the post-war reconstruction of the country.
The agreement, which should be valid for ten years, is not a legally binding international treaty and does not replace Ukraine’s full membership in NATO. According to a ČTK diplomatic source, the new government could cancel it as a legally non-binding political declaration, but the document copies the overall Czech commitments on the international scene, and such a move would, according to him, mean calling them into question.
According to the ČTK source, the document includes the obligations of the Czech Republic towards Ukraine, but also Ukrainian obligations towards the Czech Republic. It follows that security and defense consultations should take place between the two countries every year. One of the paragraphs of the document contains the wording that Ukraine will provide assistance in the event of a military attack on the Czech Republic.
The text also contains the amount of Czech support for Ukraine. At the beginning of July, the Ministry of Defense declassified that the Czech Republic had sent 6.75 billion crowns worth of military material from army warehouses to the attacked country from the beginning of the Russian invasion the year before last year until the end of May this year. According to a diplomatic source, the amount mentioned in the agreement also includes contributions to the European Peace Facility, making the total amount less than half higher than the value published by the ministry.
The security agreement between the two countries was already discussed by President Petr Pavel in April after the summit of the Three Seas initiative in Vilnius. He said at the time that it could be closed in May or June. The text of the agreement was finalized at the beginning of July, and the Czech government approved it last week.
Kyiv has so far concluded over two dozen such bilateral agreements and plans to sign several more in the coming months. He did so, for example, with the United States, Great Britain, Germany, France, Italy or Poland. At the end of last month, Ukraine also signed the agreement with the entire EU.
In addition to the Czech Republic, Slovenia also signed an agreement with Ukraine today, the STA agency reported. It is also valid for ten years, and its main purpose is to “systematize” the current support that Ljubljana provides to the country attacked by Russia.
Today, on the sidelines of the summit in Blenheim Palace near Oxford, Fiala also had a meeting with the President of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, where they discussed, among other things, the defense industry. He also met with the President of Montenegro Jakov Milatović, the topic of which was, for example, economic cooperation and tourism.
Source: www.tyden.cz
