It Will Be A Busy Year For The Hungarian Brigadier General

Since Hungary has participated in and efficiently contributed to Operation ALTHEA of the European Union since the beginning, the Military Staff of the EU asked the Hungarian Defence Forces as well to nominate a candidate for the position of the EUFOR deputy commander, because the mandate of Brigadier General Carlos Díaz del Río, the general who fills this position at the moment, will expire soon.

Brigadier General Tibor Nagy, who has been the commander of the HDF Operations Center in the last one and a half years, has also applied for the position. He learned a few weeks ago that it was his application that was accepted in Brussels, thus he can begin his tour of duty in Bosnia and Herzegovina late January.

The general, who will take over his new position precisely on January 25 at the EUFOR Command in Sarajevo, told honvedelem.hu that this new role is a great challenge for him as he has not taken part in an EU military operation before. Previously he had filled only NATO positions: between 2005 and 2008 he was serving as the deputy chief of staff at the Rapid Reaction Corps Headquarters in Solbiate Olona, Italy. From there he went to Afghanistan for six months, where he was the supporting deputy of the chief of staff of the mission during the eighth tour of duty of the ISAF.

– The EUFOR position is a bit similar to my current job, but obviously, it will have new elements as well, which mainly result from the international nature of the operation – told us General Nagy, adding that earlier there had been an international military contingent with a greater number of personnel in Bosnia and Herzegovina, but the IFOR/SFOR corps had done their duty, which was primarily to create security and stability in the country.

The European Union’s Operation ALTHEA has a different goal today – the troops serving in the southern Slavic country have weapon control, training, and if necessary, crowd control tasks in the first place. At the moment there is only one Spanish-led international maneuver battalion serving in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The currently 160-strong EUFOR contignent of the Hungarian Defence Forces is also a part of these corps. In addition to the maneuver battalion, there are some observation teams, the so-called Liaison and Observation Teams (LOTs) that are also active in the country.

As the deputy commander of the EUFOR mission, the primary task of Brig.Gen. Tibor Nagy will be to lead the maneuver battalion and the observation teams, but beyond that he will also have to substitute for the commander in case there is a need for that. At the moment the commander of the EUFOR (COM EUFOR) is an Austrian general, Major General Bernhard Bair.

Tibor Nagy told us in confidence: in his new position he will also be given tasks related to the transformation of the EUFOR mission. The plans have been completed, and at the base of the current mission an international contingent responsible for training will be set up this year. So in all probability, it will be a busy year for him…

We were also told that Tibor Nagy has already been to Sarajevo several times, and recently he has spent a week in the capital of Bosnia and Herzegovina. It was then, during the preparations for taking over the position, that he received a detailed briefing about his future tasks.

The commander of the HDF Operational Center will serve in the EUFOR for one year. His successor at the Budapest-based military organization will be Colonel (eng.) Attila Süle, who was the head, and in the last six months, the acting chief of staff of the Crisis Management Department of the Center. According to the plans, the general will return to his previous position after his tour of duty abroad.

In response to the question of honvedelem.hu, Brig.Gen. Tibor Nagy also told us that he is looking forward to the journey. All he regrets is that this time his wife cannot accompany him so not for the first time during his military career, he will have to spend a longer period without his spouse.