Central European Cooperation Is Strong in the Field of Defence

Together with his counterparts, Minister of Defence Dr. István Simicskó reviewed the most important defence policy priorities of the Hungarian V4 presidency, highlighting, among others, the continuing operational cooperation, with special regard to the preparations of the establishment of the V4 EU Battle Group again in the second half of 2019, and the intensive joint activity in military exercises. Furthermore, the effective protection of Europe’s external borders against illegal mass migration is essential in order to maintain regional security and stability. For this reason, in the first half of 2018, when Hungary is scheduled to hold the presidency of the Central European Defence Cooperation (CEDC) besides the V4 presidency, it will join forces with Croatia, Slovenia and Austria to build on the efforts related to the management of the migration crisis and the role of the armed forces that are being made within the CEDC upon Austrian and Czech initiative, including the organization of multinational exercises.

Finally, as part of the intensive defence policy dialogue among the V4 countries, the ministers talked about the NATO–EU cooperation. They agreed that unnecessary duplications between the two organizations must be avoided; at the same time, we cannot rely solely and exclusively on NATO either, as apart from the possibility of a large-scale armed conflict, Europe must have an independent military crisis response potential that it can effectively use in the interest of European people. The launch of the Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO) and the related boost to defence industry may be instrumental in achieving this goal, so the Visegrád countries have adopted a positive stance towards the Hungarian presidency’s initiative to organize a V4 defence industry forum.