Government halts armaments exports to Turkey

The Czech Republic has halted arms exports to Turkey in response to Ankara's incursion into northern Syria, Interior Minister Jan Hamáček (Social Democrats) announced via Twitter on Monday evening, following a government meeting. Trade Minister Karel Havlíček, whose ministry had published the country's arms export figures earlier that day, said that armaments exports to Turkey only make up around CZK 140 million annually.

The news comes after meeting of the European Union's foreign ministers in Luxembourg, where member states pledged to suspend weapons exports to Turkey, but did not go as far as to implement a formal EU-wide arms embargo. During which Foreign Minister Tomáš Petříček (Social Democrats) told journalists that he will propose to Prime Minister Andrej Babiš that the Czech Republic take part in an arms embargo on Turkey.