NATO security guarantees questioned at Prague meeting

Czech officials at a strategy conference in Prague openly questioned NATO's security commitment to Central Europe and appealed to the military alliance to strengthen its guarantees.

The Jan. 12 conference, attended by Czech-born Madeleine Albright, a former U.S. secretary of state, was part of preparations for the alliance's new strategic concept currently under review.

Former Foreign Affairs Minister Alexandr Vondra doubted whether the "all for one" Article 5 of the NATO charter, which obliges the alliance to come to the defense of any member who is attacked, would be adhered to should the Czech Republic or a neighboring member state be attacked.

"We need a new affirmation, mainly for the new NATO member states, that the commitment on joint defense is taken seriously," Vondra said. "This also concerns the defense planning and the deployment of respective capacities to enable a reaction in the case of a crisis."

In particular, Vondra was concerned about Russian policy toward the region, saying his concerns are "naturally connected with uncertainties around Russia's further development."

Vondra and Foreign Affairs Minister Jan Kohout opened the conference, held at the Foreign Affairs Ministry's premises in Černín Palace.

Jiří Schneider of the Prague Security Studies Institute told The Prague Post the lack of perceived security guarantees from the United States has heightened concern in the region.

"The problem is that we [the Czech Republic] have only been in NATO for 10 years, and, as of yet, there has not been a materializing of guarantees. People question whether NATO would be willing and able to come to our defense in some future crises," he said.

Vondra's comments come at a time when concern has been raised about possible U.S. abandonment of the region - the latest reservations among those who see U.S. President Barack Obama's "reset policy" toward Russia as history repeating itself with the West, once again neglecting its Czech allies for the sake of larger geopolitical ambitions akin to the 1938 Munich Conference.

Indeed, concerns about the lack of U.S. commitment to the region have been growing since Obama became president, and, in July 2009, a group of former policymakers and intellectuals wrote an open letter to the Obama administration requesting it to strengthen its diplomatic and security ties to the region. The argument has been bolstered by the failure of the United States to name a new ambassador to the Czech Republic for more than a year; the post still remains empty.

The signatories, including former President Václav Havel, warned the post Cold War trans-Atlantic security agreements were in danger of falling apart and that the region was ceasing to be a priority on the U.S. foreign policy agenda.

The new strategy will be submitted at the next NATO summit, scheduled to take place in Lisbon at the end of 2010, to replace the current strategy that was worked out after the Cold War. NATO's new strategy will have to take into consideration the alliance's role in Afghanistan. A separate conference discussing reconstruction challenges in Afghanistan will be held in Prague Jan. 25-27.

Cillian O'Donoghue can be reached at
codonoghue@praguepost.com