Does the Defence Cooperation Agreement between the Czech Republic and the United States limit the Czech Republic´s sovereignty? No, that's not true: the agreement primarily regulates the legal status of US troops in connection with the possible performance of their duties on the territory of the Czech Republic.
The claim appeared in a video (archived here) published on TikTok on July 28, showing Tomio Okamura, the head of the right-wing opposition populist party Freedom and Direct Democracy, with a caption in the Czech language, translated into English by Lead Stories, reading:
The future presence of US foreign troops on our territory based on this agreement significantly limits the sovereignty of the Czech Republic. Moreover, it cannot be terminated for 10 years.
This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:
(Source: TikTok screenshot taken on Mon Jul 31 06:56:30 2023 UTC)
The Defence Cooperation Agreement, is a standard bilateral international agreement between the two sovereign states that establishes a broad defense-oriented legal framework and facilitates cooperation in areas such as defense policy coordination, research and development, joint military exercises, status of troops' family members and criminal law as it applies to US troops in the Czech Republic. Slovakia, the Czech Republic´s neighbor, signed a defense cooperation agreement with the US in 2022, and faced similar criticism from opposition parties. According to the Czech Defense Ministry, other countries, such as Hungary, Poland, and the Baltic States, are among 24 NATO members that have ratified DCAs with the US. The Czech parliament ratified the document on July 19.
The Czech Defence Ministry says that DCA does not give the US any automatic rights to station its forces in the Czech Republic. The ministry also cites the Article 43 of the Czech constitution, which the DCA does not override, that stipulates that the stationing of foreign troops in the country must be first approved by the government and, if it lasts longer than 60 days, it must be ratified by the parliament.
