Strong Bounds of Trust and Mutual Respect

The Hungarian Institute of International Affairs held a conference on US–Hungary Special
Forces Cooperation. In his presentation, Péter Siklósi, Deputy State Secretary for Defence
Policy and Planning, Ministry of Defence noted that although Hungary’s role in Afghanistan
is expected to be finished next spring, this is not the end of cooperation, since we are living
in an uncertain world. For this reason, we always need some reliable allies. As he noted, the
strengthening of cooperation between Hungarian and US armed forces is an important goal,
and Washington provides a lot of assistance to the development of Hungarian forces.

“Hungarian and US soldiers have built strong bounds of trust and mutual respect as
NATO allies, and with our shared commitment to defend the values of democracy.", Eleni
Tsakopoulos Kounalakis, the US ambassador to Hungary said at the conference held on April
22 in the Hungarian Institute for International Affairs, where the discussion focused on the
past and future of the Special Forces.

Major General Michael S. Repass, Commander of U.S. Special Operations Command Europe,
US EUCOM praised the capabilities of Hungarian Special Forces soldiers. As he noted, today
the two countries’ Special Forces are doing an outstanding job and their staffs are operating as
completely integrated. Thanks to the unique skill-sets they are able to upscale the operations
overall. The troops of the allies are completely co-dependent on each other in combat zones,
no matter what uniform they wear. An excellent example of this is the teamwork of the
American and Hungarian Special Forces. He stated that the US side has made a very strong
commitment to continue this relationship with the Hungarian Special Forces.

Zsolt Németh, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs delivered
a speech, in which he stressed that although nowadays the United States is increasingly
focusing its security policy on Asia, it continues to consider Europe as a reliable and
necessary partner. That is the reason why the Hungarian Defence Forces have received
assistance from their US ally, since the Hungarian Special Forces personnel are using almost
the same equipment and weapons as the US Special Forces. Both the physical and the mental
similarities have helped in achieving results together.