Minister Metnar’s lookback at the Annual Commanders’ Meeting: One of the most interesting and hectic times

Author: By editorial staff

The Ministry of Defence was the venue to the Annual Commanders’ Meeting that discussed the Czech Armed Forces’ plans for 2022. This was Minister Lubomír Metnar’s last attendance in the meeting as the Minister. He underlined the growing defence budget, modern weaponry for our service personnel and the support of Czech armaments companies as the most important achievements.

Minister Metnar served three and half years in office and he used this opportunity to look back. ‛It was one of the most interesting and hectic times of my life. I will remember it fondly,’ said the Minister. In his address, he also expressed gratitude to the Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces, General Aleš Opata, and others for their cooperation.

General Opata thanked him in return for setting defence procurements in motion. ‛I firmly believe that cooperation with the new Government will also work well. It is vital for our country. Two percent GDP is an absolute must and I appreciate that this increase was also defined among the priorities of the new coalition,’ General Opata underscored.

Handling the pandemic well

In the past two years, one of the phenomena to have influenced the armed forces’ activity was the coronavirus pandemic. Minister Metnar expressed his pride in how the armed forces have managed the situation and have helped the country in the toughest of times. In his opinion, the deployment of the armed forces reflected in the increasing trust of the general public. ‛The armed forces enjoys the confidence of three quarters of Czechs. That is a sizeable success but also a huge commitment. I know you well, so I know you will be up to it,’ the Minister said.

Double the 2014 budget

A significant success of the exiting Minister is the increasing defence budget. ‛Defence expenditures have been growing at an all-time pace. Since 2014, our budget doubled, which is unparalleled in the government domain,’ Minister Metnar noted. At the beginning of his tenure in 2018, the budget was CZK 59 billion, compared to this year’s more than 85 billion. For the period of the past seven years, the Czech Republic was the seventh fastest growing among the thirty NATO nations.

42,000 contracts executed

An increased defence spending has ensued a dynamization of the acquisition process. Since the primary mission of the armed forces is to provide national defence, it is necessary to modernize its equipment. ‛Since my arrival at the Ministry, a total 42 thousand contracts were concluded across the MoD and the Czech Armed Forces in the total value of CZK 150 billion. Some 97 % of these contracts were executed with domestic suppliers. Defence investments thus reflect positively in the GDP growth, tax collection as well as in the employment rate,’ said the Minister.

The Ministry recently signed a contract for French NATO-calibre artillery guns and Israeli SHORAD air defence systems. The Czech Armed Forces already received or will receive new hand guns, helicopters, MADR radars, CASA aircraft, man-portable air defence systems, armoured vehicles for combat and CBRN defence units, off-road vehicles, ballistic equipment and others.

The Intergovernmental Defence Cooperation Agency (AMOS), which was established in spring of this year, will further facilitate procurement of military materiel. The AMOS mission is to support the selling of military materiel on government-to-government level. According to Minister Metnar, Czech businesses have been calling for such support for many years. Only seven countries in the world employ such a system, the Czech Republic now being one of them.

Not giving up on fighting terrorism

The Minister also thanked the service members for their twenty years long deployment in Afghanistan, which was the longest and largest foreign deployment in the modern history of the Czech Armed Forces. He also mentioned other locations of deployment – such as NATO enhanced Forward Presence in the Baltics in which the Czech Republic has participated on sustained basis and which ‛greatly impacts the ensuring of our own security’. In Mali, our troops successfully managed the performance of our first command of an international military mission, despite the coup, which took place. ‛We must not get discouraged. We are fighting terrorism in Africa and that is a fight we must never give up on,’ Minister Metnar concluded.