V4 Defence State Secretaries Met in Slovakia

Szöveg: Szabolcs Nyulas | 2019. május 22. 16:39

The so-called Senior Body composed of Deputy Defence Ministers, State Secretaries of the Visegrád Countries (V4) sat around the negotiating table in Tomášová, Slovakia, on Wednesday, 22nd May. The Hungarian delegation was led by Defence State Secretary István Szabó.

In reply to our question the State Secretary said that the working session first of all included the discussion of the current EU issues, such as the security situation of the continent, the Permanent Structured Co-operation (PESCO), the European Peace Facility (EPF), the European Defence Fund (EDF), the military mobility and the issue of the EU battle groups (EU BG). He told us also that the V4 Battle Group will begin their operation this year, in the second half of the year, and Hungary will contribute to that with a battalion and by providing the necessary logistic support. In addition to these, they evaluated the achievements of the Slovakian V4 Presidency lasting until 30th June.

During the negotiation they reviewed certain NATO matters, paying particular attention to the preparations of NATO’s Defence Ministerial meeting (26-27 June), and the missions and operations of the Alliance. Furthermore, special attention was paid to the Central European Battle Group to be set up at Hungarian initiative – he added.

As was said, the agenda of the June meeting of NATO’s Defence Ministers, will include the consequences of the termination of the Treaty on the Limitation of Short- and Medium-Range Nuclear Weapons, innovation and disruptive technologies, defence and deterrence, as well as burden-sharing.

The participants recalled that the current meeting was prepared by the defence policy directors’ negotiation held on 10th April, in Brussels. Then the defence policy directors discussed among others the 2023 contribution of the V4 EU Battle Group, the dates and formats of the future V4 meetings, and they also touched upon the current NATO and EU themes.

In addition to István Szabó, Róbert Ondrejcsák, the State Secretary of the Slovakian Defence Ministry, Jakub Landovsky, the Czech Deputy Defence Minister and Tomasz Szatkowski, the Polish Deputy Defence Minister were present at the meeting.