146 Hungarian Peacekeepers To Set Off For Bosnia

At the event – attended by Lieutenant General Tibor Benkõ, Commander of HDF Joint Forces Command and Mr József Michl, Mayor of Tata – Dr. Péter József, the State Secretary of the Ministry of Defence greeted the troops leaving for a peacekeeping mission.

He said the peacekeeping experiences of the past years have been deeply and efficiently incorporated in the life, preparation, and training of the Hungarian Defence Forces, and in the human performances as well. The knowledge acquired during the implementation of international assignments have been incorporated in the knowledge of the Hungarian military of the 21st century, they have become capabilities. Peacekeeping and crisis management have become the national tasks of the Hungarian Defence Forces.

– Hungary has played an active role in the stabilization of the Balkans since the mid-1990s. Since that time our aims have been obvious: the Balkans – even if we consider our neighbouring position and the common aspects of the historic past – enjoy priority in our defence policy. In line with that, most of our peacekeepers are serving in Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Although for the NATO, the main political and military priority is Afghanistan at the moment, the Republic of Hungary is directly affected by the stability of the Balkans region – the state secretary said, also mentioning that the accession of Croatia and Albania to the NATO this April is a key milestone in the stabilization of the region. Despite that, for Hungary it is still very important that in due course, all the countries in the Balkans joined the organizations of the Euro-Atlantic integration, since only full integration can guarantee lasting stability in the region. Therefore it is not a question for Hungary that the presence of NATO has to be maintained in the Balkans for the time being. The extent and quality of future presence has to be decided in cooperation with the EU.

– We always send forth the peacekeeping contingents with the same expectations and good wishes. We tell them to represent the Hungarian Defence Forces and their homeland with decency and honour. To do their duty and take care of themselves and each other. There is no greater glory than returning with success, safe and sound – Dr. Péter József said goodbye to the personnel leaving for Sarajevo. Following his speech, the representatives of the field chaplain services blessed and sanctified the Hungarian contingent to go on mission.

Following the farewell ceremony ending with a parade, Major Sándor Varga, the Commander of the fifth tour of duty of the HDF EUFOR Contingent told honvedelem.hu: the task of the Hungarian peacekeeping troops to set off for Bosnia-Herzegovina will be to carry out peacekeeping assignments under the command of a multinational, Spanish-led battalion. In other words, in addition to patrolling they duties will, if necessary, also include so-called crowd management tasks, accompanying VIPs, facility defence, and catching war criminals.

We have also learned from the commander of the contingent that in the coming weeks, in three rotations, a total of 146 Hungarian troops will travel to the theatre of operations. Most of them serve in the Tata infantry brigade, but there are troops from Szentes, Várpalota, Gyõr, Székesfehérvár, and Kaposvár as well. For Major Varga, this will be the second mission – he has already served in Bosnia a year ago.