Czech President Petr Pavel opened a major security forum in Prague on Thursday with a stark warning that Europe can no longer treat peace as the natural condition of the continent, arguing that governments must actively defend the stability many societies had come to regard as permanent.
Speaking at the GLOBSEC Forum 2026, Pavel said Europe had entered a period in which old strategic assumptions were weakening, Russia’s war against Ukraine remained the central test of continental security, and technological change was accelerating the pace of military and political risk. His message was directed not only at governments on NATO’s eastern flank, but at European capitals still debating how far and how fast they must expand defence capacity.
“Peace in Europe can no longer be treated as the default state of affairs,” Pavel said, according to reporting from the forum. “It must once again be actively protected, defended and maintained.”
The remarks placed the Czech president, a former army general and former chairman of NATO’s Military Committee, among the clearest European voices arguing that the continent must prepare for a more demanding security environment even if the transatlantic alliance remains central to its defence. Pavel said NATO continues to be the foundation of collective defence and that the transatlantic bond remains essential, but he also warned that Europe must be prepared to stand on its own when needed.
The GLOBSEC Forum, held in Prague from 21 to 23 May, has gathered European and international officials, security experts, technology leaders and policymakers under the theme “Europe in the Intelligent Age.” The official programme listed Pavel’s opening appearance as a keynote session focused on Europe’s strategic choices in a decade shaped by technology, sovereignty and geopolitical competition.
Pavel’s office said ahead of the event that the Czech president would deliver the opening speech and hold bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the conference, including with Moldovan President Maia Sandu, former NATO secretary-general Anders Fogh Rasmussen, European Commissioner Michael McGrath and Microsoft global affairs president Lisa Monaco. The schedule underlined the dual focus of this year’s forum: hard security in Europe and the technological foundations of future strategic power.
In his address, Pavel framed Europe’s defence challenge as broader than a single budgetary debate. He said the continent must improve political will, industrial capacity and technological capacity, warning that those priorities had become more urgent as discussions about the future scale of America’s conventional military presence in Europe became more pronounced. The point was not, he argued, that Europe should turn away from the United States, but that it should stop assuming the old security architecture will remain unchanged.
That distinction is politically important. European leaders have long acknowledged the need to spend more on defence, but the war in Ukraine and uncertainty over future U.S. commitments have turned the question into a strategic test. Pavel’s formulation avoided presenting European defence autonomy as a substitute for NATO, instead casting it as a necessary strengthening of the European pillar inside the alliance.
“The lesson of this moment is not that Europe is alone,” Pavel said. “It is that Europe needs to be strong enough to stand on its own when needed.”
Ukraine was at the centre of Pavel’s argument. The Czech president said support for Kyiv should not be described as charity, but as a direct investment in Europe’s own security. He warned that any settlement imposed on Ukraine from a position of weakness would not end Europe’s strategic problem, but deepen it.
“If Ukraine is forced into a bad peace, we all will live with the consequences for decades,” Pavel said.
The warning reflects a view widely held in Central and Eastern Europe: that Russia’s war against Ukraine is not an isolated conflict, but part of a wider confrontation over Europe’s post-1991 security order. For countries such as the Czech Republic, Poland, the Baltic states and Slovakia, the outcome of the war is tied directly to future deterrence, alliance credibility and the security of NATO’s eastern flank.
Pavel also used Ukraine as an example of adaptation under pressure. He pointed to Ukrainian companies producing drones in numerous versions, sending them quickly to the front line, testing them in combat conditions and incorporating feedback within days. That cycle of procurement, deployment and improvement, he argued, contrasts sharply with European systems often slowed by regulation, procurement delays and peacetime administrative routines.
The Czech president said Ukraine had demonstrated “determination and heroism,” but also an “unbelievable capacity to adjust, to innovate, to change.” Europe, he suggested, had lost some of that agility through regulatory and bureaucratic habits that may be necessary in peacetime but are inadequate in conflict or near-conflict conditions.
His remarks add to a growing European debate about defence production and procurement speed. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, European governments have faced repeated questions over ammunition output, air defence stocks, drone production, armoured vehicle availability and the fragmentation of national procurement systems. Pavel’s speech tied those challenges to the broader political question of whether Europe can move at the pace demanded by modern war.
He also called for closer alignment between the European Union and NATO. In Pavel’s view, the EU has instruments NATO does not, including funding, industrial policy and infrastructure tools, while NATO has military planning structures and defence capabilities. He said Europe’s ability to respond effectively would depend on using those instruments together rather than treating the two institutions as parallel or competing structures.
That argument is likely to resonate in Brussels, where EU institutions have been trying to expand the bloc’s role in defence financing, joint procurement and defence industrial policy while avoiding duplication with NATO. For member states that belong to both organisations, the coordination question is no longer theoretical: Ukraine’s battlefield needs, NATO deterrence plans and EU funding mechanisms increasingly intersect.
Pavel’s comments also reflected the specific position of the Czech Republic. Prague has been one of Ukraine’s active European supporters, including through initiatives to source ammunition for Kyiv and through sustained diplomatic backing for Ukraine’s sovereignty. Pavel, elected president in 2023, has consistently argued that European security depends on resisting Russian aggression and maintaining Western support for Ukraine.
At GLOBSEC, he presented that position as a continent-wide imperative rather than a regional concern. “History will simply not wait for Europe to become ready,” he warned, calling for swift action to strengthen the continent’s strategic capacity.
The timing of the speech matters. European governments are preparing for further NATO and EU discussions on defence spending, industrial output and long-term support for Ukraine. Several capitals are also debating how to reconcile budget pressures with demands for larger military investment. Pavel’s intervention sharpened the argument that the cost of preparedness must be weighed against the risk of strategic failure.
The forum’s technology theme also gave Pavel’s warning a forward-looking dimension. The GLOBSEC programme described Europe as entering a decisive decade in which technological capability will shape sovereignty, security and global influence. Pavel echoed that framing by stressing that future conflict will be shaped not only by traditional military platforms, but by artificial intelligence, autonomous systems, drones, data infrastructure and rapid innovation cycles.
The Ukraine war has already accelerated that transition. Small drones, electronic warfare, satellite imagery, battlefield software and rapid manufacturing have changed expectations about how military advantage is generated. Pavel’s point was that Europe cannot rely only on legacy defence structures while adversaries and wartime innovators exploit faster, cheaper and more adaptable systems.
His warning also comes amid a wider political shift in Europe’s public debate. For decades after the Cold War, many European countries reduced defence spending, professionalised smaller forces and assumed that major war on the continent was unlikely. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine shattered that assumption, but the practical adjustment has been uneven. Some countries have sharply increased defence budgets, while others continue to face industrial bottlenecks, recruitment problems and political resistance.
Pavel’s speech sought to push that debate beyond spending targets alone. By emphasising industrial capacity, technological competence and institutional speed, he argued that security readiness is not achieved simply by allocating more money. It requires the ability to translate political commitments into deployable capabilities.
That message has particular relevance for Europe’s defence industry. Manufacturers have expanded some production lines since 2022, but governments continue to face delays linked to long-term contracts, supply chains, workforce constraints and uncertainty over future demand. Pavel’s comparison with Ukraine’s rapid drone innovation was therefore also a critique of European defence procurement culture.
The Czech president did not present European readiness as an argument against diplomacy. Rather, he framed strength as a condition for durable peace. His warning about a “bad peace” for Ukraine suggested that any agreement reached under coercive conditions could embolden future aggression and leave Europe facing a more dangerous strategic environment.
That view is shared by many officials in countries closest to Russia, though it remains contested in parts of Europe where there is greater emphasis on negotiations, ceasefire diplomacy or war fatigue. Pavel’s speech did not outline a new peace plan, but it made clear that Prague sees continued support for Ukraine as inseparable from Europe’s own defence.
The address also underscored Prague’s growing role as a venue for European security debate. GLOBSEC, originally associated with Central European strategic discussion, has become a broader platform for transatlantic and European policy exchange. Hosting the forum in Prague allows Czech officials to place Central European security perspectives before a wider audience of policymakers, industry leaders and analysts.
Pavel’s remarks are likely to be read alongside other recent European warnings about Russia, defence spending and the need for credible deterrence. What distinguished his address was the directness of the formulation: peace, he said, is no longer the default. That statement captured a broader European mood in which deterrence, resilience and preparedness have moved from specialist security language into mainstream political debate.
For Pavel, the strategic conclusion was clear. Europe must remain anchored in NATO, keep the United States engaged, support Ukraine, and at the same time build the capacity to respond faster and more independently when its own security is at stake. The challenge, he suggested, is not to choose between Atlantic solidarity and European responsibility, but to make the two mutually reinforcing.
As the Prague forum continues, Pavel’s opening warning is expected to frame discussions on defence readiness, democratic resilience, technology and the future of Europe’s place in a contested global order. His message was deliberately sober: Europe still has the resources, alliances and institutions to protect itself, but it can no longer assume that peace will maintain itself without sustained political and industrial effort.
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