Final Word from Tuesday, July 7, 2026

Everybody knows that the Nato declaration from The Hague summit last year called for devoting 3.5% of GDP to core defense and 1.5% to related spending by 2035, but less publicity has been given to a line in the document about support for Ukraine. Because Ukraine's security contributes to Nato's own security, the document says, Nato members will "include direct contributions towards Ukraine's defense and its defense industry when calculating Allies' defense spending." In other words, anything provided to Ukraine counts toward national defense spending. If the Alliance reaffirms this in Ankara, it could have an impact on whether the Czech government bows to the German-led request that Nato members provide €70bn (or €40bn, depending on how it's defined) in financing to Kyiv this year and next. Babiš will need to spend about an extra Kč 20bn this year to reach the required 2% level, and the Czech share of the new money for Ukraine would go a long way toward bridging that gap. But Babiš has already vowed not to participate in the new funding for Ukraine, and he wouldn't exactly get a warm welcome from his voters at home if he changed his mind. [ Turkey commitment ]