PRAGUE (Sputnik) — The Czech Republic wants to join one of the NATO multinational battalions soon to be deployed in the Baltic states, Stropnicky said Thursday.
"The Czech Republic would like to join NATO group under the framework of the strengthening of the eastern wing of the alliance, under Canadian command in Estonia, or as part of the German group in Lithuania in 2018," Stropnicky said at the meeting of Visegrad Four (V4 Group).
He added that Czech forces would like to participate in the drills along with the US forces deployed in Europe.
The V4 Group, established in early 1991, comprises the Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia.
Over a dozen of countries will contribute to four NATO battalions in the region. Albania, Italy, Poland, Slovenia will contribute to the Canadian-led battalion in Latvia. Belgium, Croatia, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands and Norway will join the German-led battalion in Lithuania. Denmark and France will contribute to the UK-led battalion in Estonia. Finally, Romania and United Kingdom will join US-led battalion in Poland.
