Ministerial Talks in Bratislava on Developing Defence Cooperation

At their meeting, the two ministers discussed the EU-, UN- and NATO-led missions involving the two countries’ armed forces, the joint military unit to be set up within the V4 group as of 2016, and the cooperation to be conducted in the interest of saving the defence industry companies of the two countries.

At the press conference following the meeting, Csaba Hende said that the bilateral relations had so far been unexceptionable, and that the meeting had produced several concrete results in the interest of developing these relations.

The Minister of Defence praised the defence cooperation within the V4 group, also touching on the joint military unit to be set up in 2016. He said that the around 3000-strong unit will carry out standby tasks for the European Union in a six-month rotational system.

“The national parts of the joint Battle Group will become a cohesive unit during the joint exercises. At the same time, they will not be placed on standby at the same place and for the same period, but rather within the framework of their own national armed forces", Minister Hende told the Hungarian News Agency MTI. He added that the V4 Battle Group will be a complex combat unit which can deploy at a very short notice to conduct very intensive operations.

Slovak Defence Minister Martin Glvác called the two-day meeting successful, all the more so because after 12 years this was the first occasion when a Hungarian Minister of Defence visited Slovakia. He told the press that during their discussions, it was reasserted that the two countries share a common stance on the EU-, UN- and NATO-led missions. He pointed out that during the talks, the two ministers agreed that – with a view to establishing a similar model – Slovakia would study the volunteer reserve system which is already operating in Hungary. They also agreed that they should start intensive bilateral cooperation in the interest of keeping the two countries’ defence industry companies afloat. According to Martin Glvác, the talks have resulted in several agreements on cooperation, but because of their nature, he did not want to go into specific details about part of these.

Photos: www.mod.gov.sk