Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout, left
Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout said in an interview that NATO should reassess its deployment of troops around the world and return to territorial defense. While he praised the new U.S. missile defense plan in Europe he also made it clear that a command post would not be established in the Czech Republic.
NATO should reassess the deployment of missions in the world and return to territorial defense, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Kohout said in an interview for yesteday’s issue of daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung ahead of his working visit to Berlin on Thursday.
Kohout said the concept of coping with present-time threats of terrorism and cyber attacks that NATO wants to present this year should rather aim at strenthening territorial integrity of the member states and their solidarity.
“We should also take a different attitude to the ‘expedition missions’ of NATO that have been its main activity over the past ten years. We should return to the roots of NATO, that is territorial defense,” Kohout said.
He praised the fact that the new U.S. project of anti-missile defense that has replaced the planned stationing of a radar base on Czech soil and a silo with interceptor missiles in Poland embraces the whole Alliance.
Kohout said the Czech Republic will play an active role in it. He said, however, he does not expect a command post to be established in the Czech Republic, but rather a post serving information exchange.
He said he knows that Washington’s interests lie elsewhere than in Europe at present.
“We are expected to shoulder responsibility for our own security and Europe to invest means into becoming a partner of the United States,” not a client, Kohout said.
That is why NATO and the EU must reinforce their institutions.
Security and EU issues are expected to dominate Kohout’s talks in Berlin where he will meet his German counterpart Guido Westerwelle among others.
Kohout said he expects the discussion to also touch on the planned construction of another two units of the nuclear power plant in Temelin, south Bohemia, that has many opponents mainly among the inhabitants of the border areas of Germany’s Bavaria.
“We are trying in our own interests…to make Temelin as safe as possible,” Kohout said.
He said the Czech Republic has no other alternative but nuclear energy as long as it wants to keep its energy independence and self-reliance.
Kohout said nuclear energy is experiencing a renaissance in Europe and that he considers it a contribution to environment protection.
Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance
[...] all NATO allies and that the Prague will play an active role in it. He said on March 4, however, he does not expect a command post to be established in the Czech Republic, but rather a post serving information exchange. “We are expected to shoulder responsibility for [...]