Petr Pavel: support of Ukraine is in the interests of the democratic world

The world is entering an “era of strategic competition” between democracies and autocratic rulers, and supporting Ukraine is a matter of preserving the rules that are necessary to live in peace and cooperation, the Czech Republic’s president said last week, according to Prague Castle.

In a speech at the U.K. Royal College of Defense Studies, President Petr Pavel recollected 2005, when he was studying there. After the breakdown of the bipolar world, the Soviet Union and the Warsaw Pact, discussions mainly focused on international terrorism. “We believed that we have only rosy times ahead of us full of cooperation and understanding […] We didn’t have an idea at that time that we will be facing another competition, confrontation at a level of superpower, especially the powers with nuclear weapons,” Pavel said.

He also reminded the audience about a document signed in 2004 setting up a framework of cooperation between Russia and NATO, and just in two years, Putin’s infamous speech at the Munich security conference rang in the beginning of Russia’s new approach to international relations. “Since then, a lot of things have changed. Now, we are in the situation, where we have an aggressive war of Russia against the sovereign country, against Ukraine,” said the Czech president.

“Some political scientists expect that in the near future, we may have even a military conflict with China. I heard the dates, latest in 2027 we’ll see a military conflict between China and Taiwan, and then involving a number of countries in this conflict. I don’t go that far, but it is fair to admit that we are entering an era of strategic competition between democracies on one side, between autocratic rulers of a different kind on the other side,” Pavel said.

He said some countries that are striving to be democratic despite some democratic deficit will potentially be on the side of world democracies. “On the other side will be those who want to change the existing world order, rewrite the rules of international law, the rules of international trade, they would also like to get more influence and power over a number of countries. It’s not just Russia today trying to get influence over Ukraine, but Russian leaders do not hide their intentions to restore the greatness of the former U.S.S.R., to restore the zone of influence over Central and Eastern Europe and a number of Central Asian countries. In fact, they are increasing their influence in Africa as well through a number of measures, some of them is a private military group – Wagner group – still active in a number of African countries.”

“When I come back to the conflict with Ukraine, I would like to remind you that very few of us, if anyone, believed that Ukraine could withstand the pressure of Russia, which was believed to have the second most powerful army in the world. Now, after more than one year, some would say, that Russia still has the second mightiest military, but in Ukraine,” the president pointed out.

“I am repeating that to the citizens of the Czech Republic when we discuss the necessity to support Ukraine, it is in our interest, because if we don’t want Russia and others to believe that whoever wants to promote their interest through aggression is actually free to do so because we will not oppose him, then we have to react. It’s a matter of principle, it is not a question if we like Ukraine or not, it is not a question if we like Ukrainians or not, it is a matter of preserving the rules that are necessary to live in peace and cooperation.”