Hungary regards Connected Forces Initiative important

At the George C. Marshall Center seminar Mr Siklósi pointed out that the largest and

most complex operation of NATO in Afghanistan would be over soon. The experience

gained primarily from cooperation for years should not be wasted and that is the reason

why Connected Forces Initiative was invented. The initiative emerged as early as the

2012 NATO Summit in Chicago and its elements are: joint training, technological

developments and exercises.

“Hungary supports the initiative as this is a completely logical step and we do not want to

lose our interoperability that we obtained through huge material and human sacrifices",

the Deputy State Secretary emphasised. In his opinion this is one of the most spectacular

political initiatives of NATO since it also involves large-scale exercises. Hungary will

have a significant role in this process, for example in the field of various training and re-
training programs and through the Medical Centre of Excellence, he added.

The Deputy State Secretary highlighted that the Defence Ministry is soon to

decommission the obsolete Hungarian weapon systems and will rearm the HDF in which

it counts on the support of Hungary’s allies.

Mr Siklósi emphasised that “we have to be ready to meet the future challenges and

prepared for various opportunities too. CFI can be very useful both in this field and in the

field of the cooperation of NATO nations."

Among others it was stated at the seminar that CFI can improve operational efficiency

too because it is a summary of all those lessons learned and capacities which are

paramount for any successful cooperation.

Photos by László Tóth