Up to 1,200 Czech troops may be deployed at NATO’s eastern flank in the next two years, under a plan for foreign army missions until 2024 approved by the Senate today.
The Chamber of Deputies is yet to give the go-ahead to the missions.
In all, up to 1,362 soldiers may be deployed in foreign missions in 2023 and 2024. The current deployment plans are valid till the end of this year.
The plan has been significantly shaped by the Russian aggression against Ukraine, Defence Minister Jana Cernochova (ODS) told senators.
Under the proposal, up to 1,200 soldiers are to operate “within the reinforcement of the defence of eastern border” of NATO in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary.
The government plan also suggests the deployment of 20 soldiers “for the protection of the Czech Republic’s diplomatic interests in Ukraine”, who will be able to leave immediately after their mandate is approved and protect the diplomatic office in Kyiv, said Cernochova.
Under the plan, up to 56 signallers are to serve in command structures of NATO, the EU and the United Nations.
The plan also includes the possibility of soldiers from other NATO countries remaining in the Czech Republic on a short-term basis, up to 800 persons. According to Cernochova, this certainly does not provide a mandate for their permanent deployment or the opening of bases in the Czech Republic, Cernochova said.
The annual costs of the missions are to total roughly CZK 1.4 billion, less than in the previous two years.
The plan was backed by 66 out of the 67 senators present, with only Jaroslav Chalupsky (Svobodni) abstaining.
In most cases, other foreign missions will continue in the same scope as now. These include the KFOR in Kosovo (eight soldiers), the EU’s Irini operation in the Central Mediterranean (five soldiers), the MFO mission in the Sinai (20 soldiers), the UN missions MINUSMA in Mali (15 soldiers) and the UNDOF in the Golan Heights (five soldiers).
There is a minor increase to eight soldiers in the case of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the local EU operation Althea.
The proposal does not include the further presence of the Czech military in the EU training missions in Mali and Iraq.
The mandate, which the parliament passed two years ago, planned the deployment of up to 851 Czech soldiers in foreign missions in 2021 and up to 946 soldiers this year, and the expected costs were CZK 1.7 billion in 2021 and CZK 1.8 billion in 2022.
For this year, costs of CZK 2.64 billion are anticipated.
In the last few years, the Czech military mostly sent soldiers to Afghanistan, Mali and the Baltics. The Afghan mission ended in line with the withdrawal of the allied forces from Afghanistan last year. The number of Czech soldiers abroad markedly increased earlier this year after the Russian military aggression against Ukraine, when the Czech Republic decided to participate in a NATO multinational unit.
