NATO Secretary General to Visit Hungary Next Summer

The Hungarian Minister of Defence told MTI that on the sidelines of the NATO ministerial discussions in Brussels, he had taken part in the defence ministerial meeting of the Visegrád Four countries as well, where the participants discussed the priorities of the current Polish presidency and set the agenda for the next six months. The main topics of discussion included the EU Battle Group, which will have been set up by the Visegrád Four countries by 2016.

Besides, Csaba Hende conducted bilateral discussions with Romanian Defence Minister Corneliu Dobritoiu. They reviewed the issues of cooperation, including the activity of the Hungarian–Romanian TISA Multinational Engineer Battalion, which is deployable for disaster response (primarily flood control) missions.

They noted that the economic situation necessitated a significant reduction in the Romanian defence budget, which entails a comprehensive defence review.

At the NATO Defence Ministers Meeting, both the United States Secretary of Defense and the German Minister of Defence pointed out the disproportions between the individual member states’ defence budgets. Prior to the discussion, NATO sources revealed that the proportional share of the United States is on the increase, so that now its contribution to the common defence is more than three times that of the European countries altogether. Speaking about this, Csaba Hende told us that at the meeting, United States Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta noted that the United States would not be able to bear these burdens alone for a long time because it had to make substantial cuts in its defence spending too. The Minister of Defence said that Hungary was striving to contribute to the joint efforts within its possibilities. He stressed that although only three NATO member states spend less on national defence than Hungary as a percentage of GDP, with respect to performance, Hungary – proportionate to its size – belongs to the first third of the ranking. He added that there is an indicator – namely the one which concerns the ratio of the overall strength of deployable land forces to the strength of those actually conducting operations – regarding which Hungary tops the ranking of NATO countries.

Considering the reasonable sharing of defence expenditures among the member states, Hungary has outstanding expertise and opportunities for training-related cooperation with respect to the military medicine capabilities and the counter-improvised explosive devices (C-IED) programs, the Minister said. He also mentioned the existing Hungarian capabilities of the Special Forces. Csaba Hende told us that in his speech delivered at the NATO meeting, he called on the participants to improve the cooperation between the North Atlantic Alliance and the European Union and to avoid duplications. Ms. Catherine Ashton, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy was also present and delivered a speech at the meeting.


Photo: www.nato.int