'NATO's failure in Afghanistan puts its legitimacy in question': Czech president

President Miloš Zeman, known for his pro-Russian and pro-Chinese views, described the mission in Afghanistan as a NATO defeat, which questions the sense of the North Atlantic Alliance.

In his opinion, the main role of NATO so far has been the fight against terrorism, but the Alliance has not fulfilled this role.

"The distrust towards NATO from several member countries will grow after this experience because they will say – if you failed in Afghanistan, where is a guarantee that you won't fail in any other critical situation?" Zeman said in an interview published by www.parlamentnilisty.cz on Tuesday, a website favored by the president for airing his views.

"Now that investing in NATO is kind of wasting money, our defense spending should focus on national defense, on national (military) procurement," Zeman added.

(EURACTIV.pl)