Rob Denning 
Here's the plain version of what came out of the NATO summit in Ankara: Czechia's prime minister and its president stood in the same city, at the same event, and told voters two stories that barely overlap. One says the country can't afford to hit its defence target this year. The other says the country's approach to helping Ukraine just took a step forward. Both are talking about the same few days — and for anyone in Prague trying to work out where their tax money is going, that gap matters.
What Babiš actually conceded
Prime Minister Andrej Babiš admitted in Turkey that Czechia will not meet the alliance's spending commitment this year, and he explained why the army has to wait, according to Ekonomický deník. His framing, as reported by Newstream, was blunt: highways or the army. In everyday terms, that's a household saying it can't put money into two big line items at once — and choosing the roads.
The choice tells you something about the new government's priorities. Spending on defence is being presented not as a firm obligation but as a trade-off against visible, vote-winning infrastructure at home.
What changed on Ukraine — and what didn't
On Ukraine, Prague is shifting the shape of its help rather than the fact of it. Foreign Minister Petr Macinka (Motoristé) said Czechia will send money into a programme called the Priority Ukraine Requirements List, or PURL, which pays for American weapons, ammunition and military equipment for Ukraine, per Český rozhlas. How much money is not clear. Babiš said it would be a smaller, one-off sum. Coalition partner SPD firmly rejects Czech participation; President Petr Pavel, by contrast, called it a positive signal.
So the same move reads three ways inside Czech politics at once: a modest one-off (Babiš), a red line (SPD), and a positive step (Pavel). That is a lot of interpretation hanging on a figure nobody has named yet.
Two men, one dinner, no agreement
The clearest sign of the split isn't policy — it's the retelling of a single meal. Pavel said that at the informal Tuesday evening gathering of leaders he discussed defence spending and support for Ukraine, and he also attended the reception beforehand, Novinky reports. Babiš, who was also there, said those topics never came up at dinner at all — he chatted about lighter things like football, film and food. He added that he only shook Pavel's hand, CNN Prima News reports.
Here's the catch: one detail reconciles part of it. Pavel attended the pre-dinner reception; Babiš did not. So some of the substantive talk Pavel describes may simply have happened in a room Babiš wasn't in.
Hypothesis: the two accounts diverge less because either man is inventing things and more because they moved through the evening differently, then narrated it for different audiences — Pavel projecting engagement with allies, Babiš projecting distance from a Ukraine-and-spending agenda his coalition is uneasy about. Supporting this: the reception detail reported by Novinky, and the SPD's outright rejection of PURL, which gives Babiš a reason to downplay the whole subject. Against this: we don't have the dinner's actual agenda, so a genuine difference over what was 'discussed' can't be ruled out.
Why this matters beyond Prague
For European readers, Czechia is a test case for a wider question: how do NATO members who don't want to hit the spending target, and whose governments include openly sceptical partners, keep a seat at the table on Ukraine? Prague's answer, for now, is to route a flexible one-off sum through a U.S.-purchase programme while publicly missing the headline goal. It lets a government stay inside the alliance conversation without committing to the number that conversation is built around.
What to watch next: the size of the Czech PURL contribution once it is named — a small figure would confirm Babiš's 'one-off' framing and hand SPD a grievance; a larger one would vindicate Pavel and strain the coalition. Watch, too, whether 'highways or the army' hardens into a standing budget rule or was a one-summit line.
