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The head of NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Transformation Jean-Paul Paloméros met with Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces Josef Bečvář in Prague on Wednesday to discuss the defence budget and exercises of NATO rapid reaction forces. On the agenda was the Noble Jump exercise of these forces held in Poland in June, which Mr Paloméros called a great success. This year, Czech units are set to participate in several NATO joint defence exercises. Jean-Paul Paloméros, who heads one of the two strategic commands within the NATO structure, will continue his visit of the Czech Republic on Thursday.

joining NATO The Czech Republic will support Montenegro’s ambition to join NATO this year, the Czech Prime Minsietr Bohuslav Sobotka said after meeting with his Montenegrin counterpart Milo Dukanovic on Thursday. The Czech Prime Minister said Montenegro should be the first new country to join NATO. Economic cooperation was also among the topics on the agenda. Mr Dukanovic said Montenegro is ready to sign a deal worth 350 million euros with the Czech engineering company Škoda Praha for supplying a coal-fired power plant in Pljevlje. Škoda Praha won the tender along with nine other companies earlier this year

Czech general Petr Pavel took up Friday what is regarded as the second highest post in the NATO military alliance. The position of chairman of the Military Committee is the top position in the 28-member alliance with Pavel being the main military advisor to the NATO Secretary General. Pavel is not only the first Czech but also the first person from the former Soviet bloc to occupy such a high post in the alliance. His mandate runs for three years with the possibility of a further extension.

Additional paratroopers from the Czech 43rd Airborne Battalion departed from Pardubice on Friday to take part in the NATO military exercise Noble Jump 2015 in neighbouring Poland. Sixty-five soldiers left in the second group, a military representative confirmed for the Czech News Agency. In all 150 Czech personnel are taking part. The first group left earlier this week.

Russia could occupy the Baltic States within just two days, according to Czech Army general Petr Pavel. General Pavel, who is due to become chairman of the NATO Military Committee next month, made the comment at a security conference in Prague on Wednesday. He said NATO’s political leaders were not capable of reacting with sufficient speed to altered situations, adding that measures adopted by Europe in connection with the threats of Russia and Islamic State were glaringly ineffective.

NATO has requested the Czech Republic to renew its surveillance mission of Icelandic airspace, the defence ministry’s spokesman Petr Medek told the Czech News Agency on Thursday. He said the army is set to reveal the details at a press conference on Friday. The Czech air force took its turn protecting Icleand’s airspace last autumn over the course of nine weeks. Iceland is the only NATO member state with no air force of its own. The head of an airbase in Čáslav, Petr Hromek, told the daily Lidové Noviny on Thursday that the mission should take place in July and August this year.

Air Force exercise Lion Effort has gotten underway in the Czech Republic. Over the next fortnight, some 500 personnel including pilots, ground crews and air defence from four different countries, will cooperate on numerous training missions.

The Czech president, Miloš Zeman, says Russia is unlikely to attack the Baltic States as the country’s president, Vladimir Putin, is not suicidal. Mr. Zeman said in an interview for AP that Mr. Putin was aware of the consequences of attacking any members of NATO. He said the response in such an instance would be not just political and economic but military. President Zeman has opposed Western sanctions on Russia imposed in response to its actions in Ukraine.

The last vehicles from the US convoy quit the Czech Republic just after noon on Wednesday. Three groups left barracks just outside Prague early in the morning heading for the border crossing at Rozvadov in the far west of the country. The final destination is the Bavarian base at Vilseck. The convoy continued to be enthusiastically greeted by bystanders waving US flags on the final leg of the journey through the Czech Republic. The convoy spent four days in the Czech Republic on its way back from NATO exercises in the Baltic States.

The US convoy which spent four days in the Czech Republic on its way back from a military exercise in the Baltic states left Prague’s Ruzyne barracks in the early hours of Wednesday and is returning to its home base in Bavaria. It is expected to reach the Czech-German border at around midday. Fears that it could meet with negative reactions in the Czech Republic proved unfounded. The convoy was greeted by thousands of people lining the country’s roads and highways and over 20,000 people came to the military’s Ruzyne barracks to meet with the soldiers and inspect their military technology. A thousand people attended a concert given in the troops honour on Tuesday night.