Minister of Defence Meets With President of CISM

The President of the International Military Sports Council (Conseil International du Sport Militaire, CISM), the Navy Commander of the armed forces of Bahrain, is a member of the Bahrain Olympic Committee and the International Olympic Committee. He arrived in Budapest to attend the world congress leading up to the World Judo Championships, but he also held an important discussion in the Ministry of Defence on the upcoming CISM events involving Hungary. The topics on the agenda of the meeting included Hungary’s further roles in the organization, as our country is entrusted with the organization of the 57th CISM World Military Cross-Country Championship which is to start on 5 November in Balatonakarattya, and the upcoming world parachute and pentathlon championships will be hosted by Hungary next year as well.

The discussion, however, focused on Hungary organizing the CISM Military World Summer Games in 2023, a prelude to which was a visit by the government commissioner to the CISM Headquarters in Brussels last year. Another similarly important topic of the bilateral discussion was Hungary’s hosting the World Cadet Games in 2020.

CISM was founded in Nice, France on 18 February 1948. The organizers and first members were Belgium, Denmark, France, Luxemburg and the Netherlands. The aim of CISM is to promote world peace by establishing close and regular contact between the armed forces of different countries in sports and physical education. The originally European initiative has developed into an organization with 136 members worldwide. Hungary was the first among the member countries of the former Warsaw Pact to join the organization in 1991. The Sports Council mainly organizes regional competitions, world championships, winter and summer military world games, world cadet games, world football cups and para-sport events. Only military personnel on active duty in armed forces may take part in the competitions organized by CISM, where they can compete with each other in aeronautic, army and naval pentathlon, parachuting, competitive shooting, various team and water sports, as well as martial arts.