For the third time since the start of the Russian-Ukrainian war, representatives of the Czech arms industry met with Defence Minister Jana Černochová yesterday at the Ministry of Defence for a working meeting. Prime Minister Petr Fiala was also in attendance. On the agenda were aid to Ukraine, the modernisation of the army and government support. The meeting took place shortly after the Minister's return to Indonesia with a delegation from the Czech defence industry.

As Prime Minister Fiala said at the press conference, the Czech Republic is playing an important role in assisting Ukraine. "For the three years that the war has been going on, I can say that Ukraine has become almost a second domestic market for companies involved in the production of weapons and military equipment," the Prime Minister noted, adding that the intensive support from the Czech Republic and domestic arms companies is a testament to their logistical, organisational and managerial capabilities. In 2024, the Czech Republic facilitated the supply of about 1.5 million pieces of artillery ammunition to Ukraine, including half a million pieces of 155 mm calibre ammunition, which was secured mainly through the Czech Ammunition Initiative. "This places us as the Czech Republic among the main suppliers of ammunition to Ukraine alongside the USA and the UK," the Defence Minister said.

In recent months, tens of thousands of large-calibre ammunition have been delivered to Ukraine and the Czech Republic will continue deliveries of large-calibre ammunition this year. Canada, the Netherlands, Denmark and, of course, the Czech Republic have pledged to fund new ammunition deliveries. According to Jana Černochová, the partners' contributions are already in the hundreds of millions of euros. In this context, the Minister of Defence highlighted the role of the Agency for Intergovernmental Defence Cooperation AMOS, which coordinates all assistance from the level of the Ministry of Defence. "According to current estimates, last year the export of military equipment to Ukraine increased by at least one third compared to 2023, which was already a record year in itself," emphasised Ms. Černochová.

The Czech Republic must continue to increase its defence spending in the light of recent events. The aim is to reach at least 3% of GDP within a few years. "This is money well spent. According to many analyses, one crown spent wisely on defence means three additional crowns in the Czech economy," the prime minister said. According to Fialy, it is realistic and budget-manageable to increase defence spending by 0.2 per cent of GDP per year.

The Minister also held talks today with the President of the Czech Banking Association, Jan Juchelka. They again discussed, among other things, the so-called taxonomy and the financing of military production by banks. In the past, there has been criticism from the arms industry of the banking sector for its attitude towards the provision of certain banking services, but this is now changing. "I'm really pleased that it has been voiced that things are moving in the right direction. I think all companies, both small and large, recognise that things are moving in the right direction compared to a year and a half ago when they mentioned that these issues were problematic and it was holding back our assistance to Ukraine. This is no longer the case, for which I thank the representatives of the Czech Banking Association," said the Minister.

In addition to regular deliveries of large calibre ammunition to Ukraine under the Ammunition Initiative, ammunition will also be produced directly in Ukraine. The Ministry of Defence has previously reported on the joint production of large calibre ammunition (155 mm) by the Czechoslovak Group and the Ukrainian arms manufacturer Ukrainska Bronetechnika. Other projects are in various stages of implementation and cannot be presented to the public by the Ministry of Defence for security and commercial reasons.

After the press conference we asked several questions to the President of the Association of Defence and Security Industry of the Czech Republic (AOBP) Jiří Hynek:

How do you perceive today's meeting in terms of its importance for the Czech defence industry?

I consider it significant that we have discussed some of the problems that need to be solved. I very positively welcome the interest in increasing the defence budget. I think this is good news. Not so much for the defence industry, but rather for the citizens of the Czech Republic, because security really comes first. Such events are important for the exchange of information and views on certain things, and it is difficult to cooperate without exchanging some positive things and, of course, some critical things. What is important for me is to continue to deal with the banks. I consider the approach of the Banking Association to be positive, but I am a person who says: I trust what has already happened. We will again do a kind of anonymous survey among our members of the association to find out what the real situation is in terms of the banks' attitude towards our sector. And one more thing needs to be mentioned. There are some European regulations that really need to be changed, simplified. We cannot develop the defence industry to be bound by European regulations as we are today.

Can the Prime Minister effectively help, for example, in pushing for deregulation in the European Union?

I am convinced that the Prime Minister of each Member State of the European Union can help. It is necessary to talk about these problems at the European Union summits, to push the European Commissioners to simplify the agenda and to tell them clearly: If you want to strengthen the defence of the individual countries of the European Union and, by extension, the European Union as a whole, you need to change the conditions for the defence industry. Otherwise, you will not achieve this.

You have recently returned from a successful business trip to Indonesia and the Philippines, where the Minister held talks with the defence ministers there and with the President of the Philippines. Is there any destination that you as AOBP want to focus on in terms of trade diplomacy?

Although Ukraine accounts for about 50 per cent of what we export today, we must not forget other markets. For me it is very positive that our exports are growing and every new country, every Czech flag that is planted in a territory is important for us to diversify our exports. We cannot rely on just one country.