Towards More Successful Cooperation

Organized by the Deputy State Secretariat for Defence Economy of the Ministry of Defence, the conference continued in the MoD Military History Institute and Museum on Thursday, May 3.

Christian Schmidt – the Parliamentary State Secretary of the German Federal Ministry of Defence on a visit to Hungary – delivered a keynote address on the second day of the conference, in which he pointed out that this has been the first German–Hungarian armaments conference, but it should not be the last one.

He went on speaking about the recent restructuring of the Bundeswehr, which promoted the reorganization of the Federal Minister of Defence of Germany. They started the reforms here by downsizing the staff of the Ministry from 3500 to around 2000, the State Secretary added.

Speaking about the conference, the German Parliamentary State Secretary said that thanks to the two-day discussions, cooperation between the experts of the two countries will be even more successful in the future.

In his answer, Gábor Márki, Deputy State Secretary for Defence Economy, Ministry of Defence stressed that the first day of the conference had been hard but fruitful. Representatives of both Ministries of Defence and the industrialists of the Parties have given and received rather informative briefings regarding the recent developments of the defence organisations in areas such as capabilities, capacities and possible co-operation opportunities.

“Our main goal today is to lay down the frameworks of the defence industrial and armaments co-operation for the near and common future", stated Gábor Márki, and went on quoting Defence Minister Csaba Hende, who – speaking on the previous evening at the protocol dinner given in honour of the German Parliamentary State Secretary – quoted “If you want to go fast, go alone, but if you want to reach far, go together."

Gábor Márki stressed that “The 1st Hungarian–German Armaments, Military Logistics and Military Medical Conference is another example for common actions. I do hope that with your help we will reach far."

 Photo: Veronika Dévényi