New Projects May Be Launched in the Central European Defence Cooperation Initiative
Szöveg: honvedelem.hu / MTI | 2013. június 5. 17:04On Saturday, June 1 the Defence Ministers of the Central European Defence Cooperation Initiative met in Croatia to discuss the launch of several new capability development projects, Minister of Defence Csaba Hende told Hungarian News Agency MTI on the phone in an interview.
Csaba Hende said that at the second informal defence ministerial meeting of the Central European Defence Initiative held in Mali Losinj, Croatia, the Ministers discussed future capability development projects such as regional air policing activity. Minister Hende pointed out that a good example of this is the Hungarian–Slovenian agreement to be signed on air policing, under which Hungarian Gripen fighters will conduct air policing in Slovenian airspace. Another key area is the planned combined training of Special Forces units.
The Ministers also agreed that they need to take joint action in the field of defence industry to protect the small and medium enterprises (SMEs) of the region and facilitate their access to the defence market. Furthermore, the Defence Ministers discussed the role in Afghanistan until the end of 2014 as well as the activity in the Balkans region, with the issues of Kosovo and Bosnia-Herzegovina topping the agenda.
Minister Hende also told MTI that Hungary had undertook the task to organize the next meeting of Defence Ministers, so next year the representatives of the Central European Defence Cooperation Initiative would hold their discussions in Hungary.
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