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74th Summit of NATO Heads of States and Governments in Vilnius

17.07.2023 / 10:24 | Aktualizováno: 17.07.2023 / 10:28

The 74th NATO Summit was hosted by the Lithuanian capital on 11 – 12 July 2023. The Czech delegation was led by President Petr Pavel, accompanied by the Minister of Foreign Affairs Jan Lipavský and the Minister of Defence Jana Černochová.

In the context of the Russian war in Ukraine, lasting more than 500 days, the support to Ukraine was among key topics of the Summit. NATO agreed a new multi-year assistance package to bring to help transition Ukraine to NATO standards and agreed to shorten Ukraine’s membership path from to a one-step process by removing the requirement for a Membership Action Plan (MAP). NATO heads of states and governments met President Zelenskyy for the inaugural session of the NATO-Ukraine Council. NATO will issue an invitation for Ukraine to join NATO when conditions are met. G7 countries announced long-term security guarantees for Ukraine. Czechia is ready to support this initiative.

“Today, we are moving towards a global collision of value systems, between democracies and authoritarian regimes,” said President Pavel. In the era of strategic competition, it is even more important to work with like-minded partners. The Indo-Pacific partners (Australia, Japan, Korea and New Zealand) attended the Summit, new partnership agreements were signed with Korea and Japan.

Minister Lipavský participated at an informal meeting of ministers of foreign affairs of NATO members and Sweden together with their counterparts from Moldova, Georgia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, and the EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy. The meeting focused mainly on the continuing support of defence and security capacities of the partner countries with the aim of strengthening their resilience to Russian interference.

“I welcome the fact that EU High Representative for Foreign and Security Policy Josep Borrell will attend the meeting of the Alliance Foreign Ministers. The strategic unity of NATO and the EU is absolutely essential for maintaining peace and prosperity in the Euro-Atlantic region in the light of the ongoing Russian aggression against Ukraine,” said the Minister after the meeting.

The Allies also agreed detailed and robust defence plans, including strengthening its eastern flank and increased defence investments. NATO remains united and ready to face the current challenges.