István Simicskó: New US Administration Confirms Correctness of Hungarian Security Policy

The lecture given by US Vice-President Mike Pence and the speech delivered by Secretary of Defense James Mattis have confirmed that “our worldview is the right one, we correctly interpret the threats and precisely see the solutions", the minister of defence attending the conference told MTI.

With regard to strengthening NATO and fighting radical Islamism, the American and Hungarian approaches are also very similar too, Dr. István Simicskó pointed out, emphasizing that it is likely that more effective action will be taken against the Islamic State terrorist organization in the near future. This will increase the risk of waves of migration, therefore Europe and NATO must expand the scope of their military engagement and presence in crisis zones in order to guarantee the security of European citizens, and enforce peace to ensure that those living in those areas can stay in their homelands and make their living there, the minister said in the phone interview. He underlined that the Hungarian and American positions are the same in this regard too, so the Munich Security Conference provides the government of Hungary with “positive experience".

In connection with German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s speech delivered at the conference on Saturday, in which she called for the enhancement of Europe’s defence capabilities, Dr. István Simicskó emphasized that “this too, confirms the correctness of Hungarian security policy". Hungary was the first to urge the development of common defence capabilities, and Prime Minister Viktor Orbán was the first to state that there is a need for a common army. The European partners will certainly never acknowledge that Hungary was at the forefront in this, but they have already “discreetly set off" in the direction outlined by the Hungarian government, the minister of defence said.

Photos: securityconference.de