Contrary to a communiqué recently issued by the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic, the competent Czech authorities have knowledge of the transportation to the Czech Republic of the T–72 tanks purchased in Hungary, as the Hungarian partner authority had already informed them about it earlier.

In its international import certificate No. 172/2014 (issued on May 5, 2014), the Licensing Office of the Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic licensed, for commercial/business purposes, the import into the Czech Republic of 58 T–72 tanks owned by the Hungary-based Excalibur Defense Ltd. According to the certificate, the end-user is a Prague-based enterprise. In certificate No. 178/2014 (issued on July 22, 2014), the same office licensed the import into the Czech Republic of another 22 T–72 tanks, also owned by Excalibur Defense Ltd. In this case too, the end-user is a Prague-based enterprise.

It is regrettable that prior to issuing the communiqué, the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic did not request information about the issue from the competent authority of its own country.

(Ministry of Defence)