Critics say the Czech Republic is a free rider in NATO. What does that mean?
Published
The news server iROZHLAS recently published an article with the headline claiming that the Czech Republic is officially a free rider in NATO and that it is effectively asking to be expelled. The term free rider refers to a state that benefits from the advantages of a community but does not contribute to it to a sufficient degree. In this case, it mainly concerns defence spending.
Member states of the North Atlantic Alliance agreed at the 2014 summit in Wales to gradually spend at least two percent of their gross domestic product on defence. This commitment has become the main measure of how active individual members are. For a long time, some allies, above all the United States, have also reminded the Czech Republic of it and criticised the low spending of some European countries.
On the other hand, it should be noted that the North Atlantic Treaty contains no mechanism for expelling a member. A NATO member may leave the alliance, but it cannot be expelled against its will. Therefore, the concept of expulsion in this context is more of a political image than a real possibility.
The iROZHLAS article thus opens a debate about how the Czech Republic is fulfilling its commitments to its allies and what consequences this may have for its security and relations with other members. Information about specific statements and figures needs to be verified in the original article, because its full text was not available.
Sources: iROZHLAS
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