(Bloomberg) — Europe will need the US to project strength to halt more aggressive moves from Russia, the Czech Republic’s prime minister said, as he warned allies against “appeasement” in any process to end the war on Ukraine.
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Petr Fiala, whose government has been among the most vocal in NATO in denouncing the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine, said forcing Kyiv to cede territory will only encourage Vladimir Putin’s war machine. He said he was “pleasantly surprised” by a phone call with US President-elect Donald Trump, who was inquisitive about Prague’s position on Ukraine and heard out the eastern European premier.
“We find ourselves in a very complicated and dangerous situation that some rightly describe as a second Cold War,” Fiala said in an interview in the Czech capital. “It is in our interest to have an America that is strong, and which will show its strength to Russia, because that is the only chance to stop Putin.”
Fiala’s government has spearheaded an effort to ship ammunition to Ukraine’s military and hosted hundreds of thousands of people who have fled the war. More recently, it’s joined Poland as well as Baltic and Nordic allies to champion continued shipments of materiel to the war-battered nation in the face of waning support.
The prime minister, who’s been in office for three years, made reference to a key moment in Czech history as he reinforced a position that any cease-fire terms must be accepted by Ukraine. Anything else would amount to “another Munich Agreement,” he said, the 1938 deal in which the UK, France and Italy accepted Nazi Germany’s annexation of parts of then-Czechoslovakia in a misguided bid to prevent a wider war.
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“Europe’s security simply can’t be ensured with Russia occupying a part of Ukraine and continuing its aggression,” said the premier, 60, who said his views also reflected personal memories of the 1968 Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia. “I don’t believe in the politics of appeasement — it always benefits the aggressor. Always.”
Trump, Fiala said, repeatedly asked questions as he sought the Czech premier’s views when they spoke by phone in the weeks after his re-election. The incoming US president also talked about his family ties to the country, the birthplace of his late second wife, Ivana.
“Mr. Trump wanted to understand our point of view,” he said. “I believe he is very well aware that the situation in Ukraine — and in the Middle East — must be resolved, and that the solution will be very complicated.”
Fiala echoed the president-elect’s demand to boost defense spending — and urged European allies to bolster their military capabilities and involvement in Ukraine without waiting for the US to move first. His government will lift defense spending to the NATO benchmark — 2% of economic output — this year.
“Our security can’t forever be based on the willingness of the US to defend Europe,” said Fiala. “We must play a bigger role, take more responsibility.”
Europe must also be committed to economic strength, the premier said, as he pointed to the Czech Republic’s heavy auto exports and the country’s vulnerability to high energy prices and China competition over electric vehicles.
Fiala outlined a prescription of curbing regulation and adopting “more pragmatic and realistic” environmental goals in the European Union. The Czech and Italian governments are seeking support for relaxed emissions targets and a delay for plan to ban combustion engines from 2035.
“I can see a good chance that at least some of our proposals will find enough support,” Fiala said. “If we want people to drive EVs, we first must make them cheaper and more attractive. If we just order the switch, it will end badly.”
Even as Fiala’s center-right government sees its support fading over its agenda of budget austerity, the premier said his economic plan would prevail. Surveys predict that billionaire and former Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who has said the war in Ukraine is being prolonged by NATO’s backing of Kyiv, could return to power after elections next year.
“We have adopted measures that are unpopular, but we have adopted them anyway because they are right,” Fiala said. “I’m offering the Czech Republic a path to become one of the most successful countries in Europe.”
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Publish date : 2024-12-09 05:17:00
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