PRAGUE (RIA Novosti): Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala told reporters on Saturday that he would support in the Cabinet the appeal of Defense Minister Yana Chernokhova to increase the budget of the military department for 2022 by 1.4 billion crowns (about $63 million).
“This will be the first concrete step in our intention to increase defense investment by 48 billion crowns (about $2.1 billion) over the next three years,” Fiala said.
Earlier, Chernokhova sent a letter to the Ministry of Finance of the republic with a request to increase the budget of her department for the operational procurement of military materials.
According to the prime minister, due to the fact that Czech defense enterprises will also participate in the supply of military materials for the Ministry of Defense, “this will simultaneously support the national industry, the economy as a whole and employment.”
In early April, at the request of Chernokhova, in connection with the hostilities in Ukraine, parliamentarians agreed to an increase in the defense budget by 1 billion kroons (about $45 million), as a result of which the budget of the Ministry of Defense for 2022 amounted to 89.1 billion kroons (about 45 million dollars). billion dollars).
According to Finance Minister Zbynek Staniura, as a result of the increase in the budget of the Ministry of Defense at such a pace, the Czech Cabinet can fulfill its obligation to achieve the allocation of 2% of GDP required by NATO for defense spending earlier than planned in its policy statement, in which the promised date was 2025.
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