Conference on Future NATO Operations in Budapest

On behalf of the Ministry of Defence, Deputy State Secretary for Defence Policy Dr. Csaba Vezekényi welcomed the participants of the conference. As he noted in his speech, now we live in a complex security environment, which changes at an extraordinary speed, thus creating continuous challenges for NATO. He added that it is therefore necessary to reach a common position on the future defence plans and the military operations. “This will give us the opportunity to better co-ordinate our national defence plans and address the future challenges, and also to create new opportunities" – Dr. Csaba Vezekényi pointed out.

The Deputy State Secretary for Defence Policy of the Ministry of Defence underlined that Hungary takes its share of this process as well, and makes special efforts to be ready to take advantage of the opportunities offered by the technological development. Dr. Csaba Vezekényi however called attention to the fact that the new opportunities always raise new challenges, to which we need to be prepared. “In order to provide adequate response to the future challenges, Hungary has recently launched the Zrínyi 2026 National Defence and Armed Forces Development Program, which is the most comprehensive capability development program of the past twenty five years" – he observed. As he said, besides strengthening our national defence policy, the program provides further evidence to demonstrate that our homeland is a reliable Ally, and is ready to fulfil her commitments.

Deputy State Secretary Dr. Csaba Vezekényi also highlighted that the requirement set by NATO – that a larger response force should be offered for the Alliance – is rather stressful for such a small country as Hungary. That’s why the future capability projects were to be elaborated bearing in mind to serve both the international expectations and Hungary’s economy and defence strategy. During the three-day meeting staged in the Üllői Road Institution of the National University of Public Service (NUPS) a key role is played by the implementation of the Long-Term Military Transformation – LTMT program harmonising with NATO’s Defence Planning System.

The two fundamental documents of this program are the Strategic Foresight – SFA and the Framework for Future Alliance Operations – FFAO. These reports characterize the possible political, economic, environmental, social and technological environment of the upcoming Alliance operations with an aim to assist the identification of NATO’s defence and security challenges, and the planning of the responses to these challenges. The three-day conference is attended by about one hundred and twenty Hungarian and foreign participants.