Czech Republic likely to miss NATO defence-spending target, PM tells FT

May 31 (Reuters) - The Czech ‌Republic will "probably" ​miss ​NATO's target to boost military spending to 2% of gross domestic product this year, Prime Minister Andrej Babis ‌said in an interview published on Sunday.

"We will do ⁠our best" to meet the pledge, Babis told the Financial Times, ‌but he said his government ‌was grappling with a budget shortfall due to overspending by his pro-EU predecessor.

Czech President Petr Pavel has been at ​odds with the populist Babis' government over its plans to scale back defence spending in the 2026 budget. Even ⁠as he signed the budget into law, Pavel warned in March that military outlays ​were not corresponding to growing security threats and NATO spending commitments.

Babis told the newspaper that Prague ​was committed to meeting NATO's new ‌target of 3.5% of GDP by 2035 but that NATO allies should focus more on improving ⁠capabilities than on spending targets, which could be easily manipulated.

The U.S. plans to tell NATO it will shrink the pool of American ⁠military capabilities available to assist the alliance's European nations in a major ​crisis, Reuters reported this month.

President Donald Trump has long pressed NATO allies to spend more on their defence, a goal that has become ‌increasingly prominent during Russia's four-year war against Ukraine.

Pentagon chief Pete Hegseth told fellow defence ministers at ‌an Asian security conference on Saturday: "The era of the United ⁠States subsidising the defence ‌of wealthy nations is ​over. We need partners, not protectorates."

(Reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Kate Mayberry and William ‌Mallard)

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