Ministry of Defence: Hungarian Defence Forces End One of Their Longest-Running Missions

MFO was established to monitor and verify compliance with the peace treaty between Egypt and Israel. “At a farewell ceremony held on April 1, all international partners spoke highly of the Hungarian troops and policemen serving together", the MoD emphasized in a press release. In the future, Canadian military policemen will continue the duties performed by the Hungarian contingent in the last two decades.

The MoD press release says that last year, due to the transforming NATO operation in Afghanistan and the changing international environment, the Ministry carried out a comprehensive review of the Hungarian Defence Forces’ role in international peace operations. As a result, the focus of peacekeeping activities has shifted to the Western Balkans. The withdrawal from MFO is an integral part of this concept, the press release says.

At present, some 700 Hungarian troops are serving with various foreign missions, and more than 100 well-trained soldiers are working at the headquarters and commands of the UN, the European Union and NATO. Of the troops deployed abroad, every tenth is participating in UN-led peace operations, whereas 30 per cent in EU-led operations and the remaining 60 per cent in NATO-led ones. Currently, around two-thirds of the Hungarian troops on operations are serving in the Western Balkans (Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina).

Beyond the NATO-led operations in Afghanistan and Kosovo, the Hungarian Defence Forces are participating in UN-led operations in the Western Sahara and Lebanon and there is an 80-strong Hungarian military contingent in Cyprus too. Furthermore, the Hungarian troops are playing an active role in EU-led crisis management operations in Georgia, Mali, Congo, Somalia and the Central African Republic, the MoD press release states.

Photo: László Szűcs