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Concerns are being voiced around Europe regarding Turkey’s future course in the wake of Sunday’s referendum which gave President Erdogan sweeping new powers. The country’s membership in NATO and crucial role in stemming the flow of migrants to Europe leaves many questions unanswered. I spoke to Radko Hokovský, head of the Prague-based European Values Think Tank, and began by asking him how the vote would affect Turkey’s relations with the EU.

The city of Pilsen in West Bohemia is set to host the Drill Fest, a festival of honorary guards from NATO countries' armies in June, Slavomír Tomčák from the Czech military regional command has told the Czech News Agency. Honorary units from five or six NATO countries will present themselves at a military ceremony at Pilsen’s central square on June 22. Honorary guards from Austria, Germany, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic are set to take part in the event.

A convoy of British and US troops will on Saturday cross the Czech Republic on their way from Germany to Poland to take part in NATO exercises. Around 550 soldiers with around 125 pieces of heavy equipment will form the convoy. They are expected to cross the western Czech border at Rozvadov at around 9 am and will stay overnight at Stará Boleslav. They should enter Poland on Sunday. Three similar convoys have crossed the country in the past two years with the first welcomed by thousands of people at various stops along the way.

The second highest NATO official, Czech General Petr Pavel, has held talks with Valery Gerasimov, the current Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Russia, and first Deputy Defence Minister, the Russian Defence Ministry informed on Friday. The conversation, which took place over the phone, was the first contact between the Russian armed forces with a representative of NATO since mutual military cooperation was frozen in April 2014 over the Russian occupation of Crimea. The Russian defence ministry said the contact was initiated by NATO, and its main topic was possible renewal

Russia was behind a false report of a rape by German soldiers in Lithuania that was intended to undermine support for NATO's new eastern force, the head of NATO’s military committee, Czech General Petr Pavel told the Reuters news agency. General Pavel warned Europe to expect more such "fake news”. He said he also hoped to hold the first telephone call in more than two years with Russia's military chiefs in coming weeks. There he will outline why NATO believes its biggest military build-up since the end of the Cold War is not a threat to the Kremlin.

If you’re looking for a Czech who probably has a good take on what the Donald Trump presidency has in store it’s the director of president Miloš Zeman’s foreign affairs office, Hynek Kmoníček. He took up that post after stints as Czech ambassador to India, Australia, and the United Nations. And Kmoníček is the hot tip to become the next Czech ambassador in Washington, likely taking up the post within a few weeks. I asked him first of all what the Trump presidency priorities would be.

Just days before his inauguration, US president elect Donald Trump has kicked up a storm in Europe with remarks about NATO and the EU made in a joint interview with The Times and the German newspaper Bild. Mr. Trump said NATO had become “obsolete” and the European Union was “a vehicle for Germany” predicting that more EU member states would vote to leave the bloc as Britain did last June. I spoke to Petr Kratochvíl, head of the Institute of International Relations in Prague for his take on the US president elect’s words.

The chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, Czech Army General Petr Pavel, has said he does not believe US President-elect Donald Trump will follow up on his threat that the United States might abandon its NATO treaty commitments relating to mutual defense and not come to the assistance of NATO members who are not pulling their weight financially. In an interview for the Associated Press General Pavel said Article 5 was such a fundamental part of the treaty binding NATO members that no president “would dare” change it. "I believe this commitment will be met whatever the situation” General Pavel said. He made the statement on the eve of the Halifax International Security Forum, the first major national security conference since Trump’s election.

The Czech Republic will increase defense spending to two percent of GDP, meeting requirements under NATO only after 2025 as previously agreed, the prime minister confirmed on Sunday. Speaking in a Czech TV political debate programme, he suggested increasing spending before then made little sense for the Czech military; political opponent Miroslava Němcová countered with the view that defense spending was indeed sluggish. NATO commitments were a campaign issue in the recent US presidential election for president-elect Donald J. Trump, who cast doubt that the US would honour Article 5, coming to allies' defence in the face of foreign aggression, if allies didn't pay their fair share. On Sunday, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka called a reopening of the issue of missile defense in the Czech Republic, backed roughly a decade ago by President George W. Bush, axed by the Obama administration and recently mentioned by Trump surrogate Rudy Giuliani, "science fiction".

Czech leaders have congratulated Donald Trump on his victory in the US presidential election, saying they are looking forward to continued cooperation between Prague and Washington. But how does the Czech foreign policy community view Mr. Trump’s suggestion on the campaign trail that the US might not necessarily honour NATO’s key Article 5 and come to the defence of another member if it were attacked? I put that question to Petr Kratochvíl, head of Prague’s Institute of International Relations.