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The Czech Republic’s new defence minister has hit the ground running. And Karla Šlechtová is clearly not worried about ruffling feathers at the ministry with questions about ongoing tenders, overall strategy and the place of the army in wider society.

Both the Czech prime minister and president have stressed that membership of the European Union and NATO are not up for discussion. The comments follow the resurgence of concerns about so-called ‘Czexit’ as party negotiations about forming a stable government continue.

Twenty-three EU member states, including the Czech Republic, have signed up to a European pact on defence cooperation called Pesco (Permanent Structured Cooperation). The deal, to be formally launched in December, is likely to cover everything from troops and arms to new defence projects, with varying input from different countries.

Top Czech NATO official Petr Pavel has signalled moves by the western military alliance to renew some ties with Russia, Pavel, the chairman of the alliance’s Military Committee, said, according to a TASS report, that its top representatives should meet with members of the Russian general staff by the end of the year. The moves are an attempt renew military and political relations, he added. NATO relations with Russia were frozen following the annexation of Crimea and conflict in eastern Ukraine.

Around 90,000 people attended a NATO military show in north Moravia over two days at the weekend, organisers said. The NATO Days event took place at the Mošnov airfield near Ostrava.

Almost all of the planned flyovers had to be cancelled due to bad weather on Sunday, which saw attendance of 25,000 compared to over 65,000 on the opening day.

Minister of Defence Martin Stropnický is due to meet with the minister of finance Ivan Pilný on Thursday to discuss the defence budget for 2018. Stropnický has warned that the planned allocation for 2018 risks government pledges to boost spending to meet NATO commitments. He has warned that defence spending could be just 1.16 percent of Gross Domestic Product by 2020. This would undershoot the target of 1.4 percent by 2020 and the goal of meeting the NATO target of 2.0 percent by 2024.

The Czech lower house of parliament has approved an army mission of up to 290 as part of an international NATO group in the Baltics. The mission in Latvia and Lithuania should last throughout 2018 and into January 2019. 119 out of the 165 members of parliament voted in favour. The mission still has to be approved by the upper house, the Senate. The Czech foreign minister described the mission as a significant Czech contribution to NATO.

Around 500 soldiers from six NATO countries are taking part in exercises in the Czech Republic mainly aimed at testing ground to air defense capabilities. The Tobruq 2017 exercises will continue until July 23. The main target is to test interoperability of systems and command and communications efficiency during the exercises. Parallel exercises are taking place in Latvia and Romania.

US president Donald Trump made headlines with his Warsaw visit and comments on NATO, Russia, and the world situation. But the purported reason for his Polish stopover was mainly economic, highlighting the benefits that deliveries of US natural gas to countries in Central and South-East Europe. The Czech Republic was part of the Warsaw get together and will have taken notes of Trump’s main points.

Lower house of parliament speaker Jan Hamáček highlighted the Czech commitment to boost defense spending to 1.4 percent of GDP by 2020 and further increase it afterwards in response to US President Donald Trump’s Warsaw speech. Trump, while underlining Washington’s support for the NATO principle of common defense, also stressed that many NATO members are way below the 2.0 percent of GDP NATO target. The Czech Republic currently spends slightly over 1.0 of GDP on defense. Hamáček, who was representing the Czech Republic at the Three Seas Initiative, said on his Twitter account that he talked with Trump about energy security and also raised the future of the EU-US trade deal, TTIP, with him.