Our Goal Is to Further Deepen Central European Defence Cooperation

As part of the program of the Hungarian V4 presidency, the Ministry of Defence held a high-level defence policy conference to review some topical issues in the many-sided defence cooperation among the Visegrád Four countries and to coordinate the defence policy priorities for the second half-year of the presidency.

Besides making preparations for the NATO Summit in July, the main topics of the conference included the common European security and defence policy as well as the new means to be used in the creation of more efficient EU military capacities and their utilization. An excellent example of the latter is the European Defence Fund (EDF). The Hungarian delegation was headed by Péter Siklósi, Deputy State Secretary for Defence Policy at the Ministry of Defence.

On 31 January, the second day of the conference, the group of participants expanded with another three partners, as the meeting of defence policy directors served at once as a prelude to the Hungarian presidency of the Central European Defence Cooperation (CEDC) which brings together Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Slovenia, Croatia and Poland in observer status.

Deputy State Secretary Péter Siklósi informed his partners about the defence policy priorities of the one-year Hungarian CEDC presidency that started on 1 January, which are focused on two main areas and are built upon the work of the preceding Austrian and Czech presidencies. On the one hand, besides the ministries of interior, the member states continue their cooperation in the field of national defence to handle the migration crisis in the framework of the CEDC, including preparation for a potential new wave of migrants arriving on the Western Balkan route, and the relevant coordination.

The other important pillar is the furthering of regional capacity building and defence industry cooperation in the framework of the initiatives launched with the aim of strengthening the European military crisis response capabilities, such as the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO). Considering Hungary’s parallel lead role in the presidency, the deepening of defence cooperation in the V4+CEDC format is at once one of the most important defence policy priorities of the Hungarian V4 presidency.