Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe Is Staying in Hungary

Gen. Dr. Tibor Benkő, the Chief of the Defence Staff received Sir Richard Shirreff with military honors in Heroes Square, Budapest on October 15. In what followed, the guest laid a wreath at the heroes’ memorial.

On October 16, the second day of his stay in Hungary, the Deputy Supreme Allied Commander Europe paid a courtesy call to Minister of Defence Csaba Hende, then had closed-door discussions with Gen. Tibor Benkő.

At the plenary discussion held in the Ministry of Defence in the morning, Sir Richard Shirreff attended presentations on the current state of the Hungarian Defence Forces’ engagement in missions abroad, with special regard to the ISAF mission in Afghanistan and the significant changes to occur in it. The topics of the discussion included the practical experience related to the concept of deploying the Hungarian EUFOR over-the-horizon forces and the readiness state of the Hungarian stand-by company as well as the Hungarian standpoint on EUFOR’s future.

In his presentation held at the National University of Public Service, Gen Sir Richard Shirreff assessed NATO’s present and future. He pointed out that the military and political efforts made by the members of the Alliance so far – which NATO has contributed within the ISAF mission in Afghanistan in the interest of developing the country and promoting its democratization – have now reached a turning point. Reconsideration of the NATO ISAF tasks is already in progress, since NATO expects to be able to hand over all security responsibilities to the Afghan government by 2014, after it has gradually withdrawn its combat troops from the country. However, this does not mean that the Alliance would turn its back on the country afterwards, because by using the lessons learned so far, the organization has prepared itself for developing a long-running partnership with Afghanistan.

The Deputy Commander Allied Forces Europe also noted that in spite of the existing difficulties, NATO may continue to be the only effective solution and opportunity for giving a successful joint response to the currently transforming security challenges, risks and threats.

Photo: Gábor Galovtsik