”The Key To The Power Of Armed Forces Is Cooperation”

My Hungarian colleague, General András Havril visited Belgium in 2005, and that was when the General invited me to Hungary. Thus we have been in contact for a long time, what is more, we keep contact on several levels since in the framework of both NATO and the European Union we often work together. The main purpose of the visit is to extend bilateral relations and examine the directions into which the military cooperation between Hungary and Belgium – which dates back a long time – could be enhanced. This morning, the delegations attended two presentations, which made me realize again, how many similarities there are in the armed forces of the two countries. With the Defence Minister we have primarily discussed the commitments of our soldiers abroad: the two main theatres of operations where a considerable number of Hungarian and Belgian troops are present as well are Afghanistan and the Balkans. In the former territory for instance, your defence forces will take control of the Kabul airport from the Belgian contingent. In these areas, too, we are at your disposal, to make the completion of tasks easier, and naturally, the Hungarian military help us as well, wherever they can. At the moment there are approximately a thousand Hungarian soldiers serving in missions abroad, which is quite a significant number and is very impressing: the number of Belgian troops on mission is somewhat higher, it is around 1,200 persons, though our armed forces are larger.

The issue of military reform is another thing we have in common.

That is right. It has been completed in Hungary – although the quality transformation will continue -, but in our country the restructuring process is still underway. We have engaged in a useful exchange of views in this issue as well.

How would you characterize the current reform of the Belgian military?

The reform aims at setting up a smaller, but better equipped and more powerful military. In order to do so, we have launched various procurement programmes, we have started to renew our vehicle fleet to make the forces more mobile and flexible, for instance in the field of air transport. Just like you have done, instead of numerous separate branch commands, we have established a joint forces command: it is competent in everything, from procurement to human resource management. This allows us to save huge sums, which can be invested or spent on new equipment.

In the course of the structural change, is the strengthening of the EU force a consideration as well, by any chance?

We have made efforts to include soldiery-related cooperation in the calculations for the changes, but at the same time it is important to emphasize that currently we are in the middle of the reforms and are planning to complete the transformation by 2015, when there will be slightly more than 37,000 personnel in a smaller but more efficient Belgian military. As regards cooperation, we try to make each other’s job easier with the allies: for example, in naval operations and mine detection with the Dutch, and in the field of pilot training, with the French. AlphaJet pilots are trained in France and F-16 pilots are trained in Belgium – both parties benefit from this: money matters are excluded, we provide mutual assistance. Strengthening the forces and making them more powerful depends on cooperation, and this is especially true in Europe.