Czech President Petr Pavel warned today at the Central European security conference GLOBSEC 2025 in Prague that Europe does not have the strength to force Russian President Vladimir Putin to negotiate peace in Ukraine on its own and that it is time to understand that the role of the US in the security of the Old Continent has changed.
"The new American administration has shaken transatlantic relations and forced Europe to think about strategic issues that cannot be postponed. There is no signal that Russia wants to end the aggression. It is time to draw the conclusion that the role of the US in European security has changed. We must step up efforts to build a credible European defense," the Czech president said at the opening of the conference.
Pavel reminded that all attempts to initiate peace negotiations have failed, including those of US President Donald Trump.
"Honestly, Europe does not have the strength to force Putin to sit at the negotiating table. We need other countries. We need to continue to help Ukraine defend itself, but we also need much stronger financial instruments and sanctions. Russia is not in a good economic situation. The only way to convince Putin to sit at the table is to push Russia towards economic collapse. Not to bring Russia down, but just to sit at the table," Pavel said.
The Czech president has limited expectations from the upcoming NATO summit, as NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is trying to avoid any friction and disunity, given the new US administration's approach to European allies.
"We must renew the obligation to maintain collective defense, Article 5, to continue to assist Ukraine, but the main focus is on reaching an agreement on increasing defense spending to 3,5 percent of GDP per year for purely military purposes and 1,5 percent for critical infrastructure and defense against cyber and hybrid attacks," Pavel said.
The Czech president warned that in Europe itself, it is not even a question of money and rebalancing national budgets, but often a lack of will, and that it is necessary to convince Europeans that the threat is truly serious.
"This will not be easy, given that even our American allies occasionally dispute the seriousness of this threat. We divide history into periods of war and peace. Russia sees its history as a continuous conflict in which the intensity only changes. It is currently using cyber and hybrid attacks, but this can easily change," Pavel said.
He warned that it was naive to think that Russia, well-armed, with battlefield experience, with the ambition to restore the Soviet Union as a global power, would not be tempted to test NATO soon.
"We will never be one hundred percent ready, but we must do everything we can to face the threats," Pavel replied when asked whether the seven-year deadline, which will be proposed at the NATO summit for increasing the allocation to a total of five percent, is too long.
Previously, in an interview with Bloomberg, the Czech president called on the US to give Europe more time to strengthen its defenses because it would take years to create a replacement for part of the guarantees provided by the US.
The Central European Security Conference GLOBSEC from June 12 to 14 in Prague has as its main topic the role of Europe in the chaos in which international relations have found themselves with the war in Ukraine and the arrival of the new American administration.
Among around 2000 participants in 60 panel debates and 50 side events, Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić was announced as one of 250 keynote speakers on the topic of European Union enlargement and relations with neighboring countries.
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