US envoy to NATO criticizes Czech Republic's 'disappointing' spending on defense

United States ambassador to NATO has criticized the Czech Republic for not spending enough on defensePRAGUE -- The U.S. ambassador to NATO renewed his country’s criticism of the Czech Republic on Friday, saying it had failed to spend enough on defense.“It is disappointing to see that it has not made more progress towards meeting the Hague Defense Commitment,” Matthew Whitaker told a defense conference in Prague.“Unfortunately, the Czech Republic is trending towards the bottom of the alliance when it comes to defense spending,” said Whitaker, who met with populist Prime Minister Andrej Babiš on Friday. “There have been small successes, but more certainly needs to be done, and this has been a message I delivered yesterday and today in person to our friends here in the Czech Republic,” Whitaker added.Lawmakers aligned with Babiš' government approved a budget in March that allocates less than 1.8% of the country's gross domestic product for defense this year. The approval came despite President Petr Pavel, a retired army general, urging an increase in the defense budget to meet NATO’s commitment.Whitaker warned the Czech Republic at the time in a post on X: “All Allies must pull their ...