Czech Prime Minister Fiala advocated increased European investment in defense

Europe should "put money on the table" and invest more in defense. Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala said on Czech Television(ČT) on February 19.

"If we Europeans want to be taken seriously, we must become stronger economically and militarily," he said.

At the same time, he clarified that he favors an increase in military spending at both the national and pan-European level.

"We need to 'put money and weapons on the table' and then the world will take us seriously. Europe has ignored this for a long time, but now is the time to change that," Fiala concluded.

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On the same day, French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called Russia "the enemy of all Europe." He noted that the reason for this lies not only in the conflict in Ukraine.