US Ambassador Praises the Work of Hungarian Troops

Szöveg: Ádám Draveczki-Ury | 2012. március 29. 10:54

In the afternoon of Friday, 23rd March Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis, the US Ambassador to Budapest held a presentation with the title “From Lisbon to Chicago – Transatlantic Security and the 2012 NATO Summit” at the Faculty of Military Science and Officer Cadet Training of the National Public Service University.

The Ambassador started her presentation by speaking about the changes in NATO’s mission in a historical perspective and the strategic concepts of the Alliance. She also spoke about the currently applied principles of “Comprehensive Approach", “Pooling & Sharing" and “Smart Defence" that were dictated by economic necessities, citing the Strategic Airlift Capability (SAC) program as an example of pooling and sharing defence capabilities.

Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis briefly informed the audience about the key items on the agenda of the next NATO Summit in May, for example the NATO missions and some topics concerning the missile defence system, as wells as the issues of cooperation with non-member partners. She said that Washington considers Europe as its most important strategic partner, and the transatlantic cooperation in security policy is necessary and has no alternative.

In her presentation, the ambassador recalled her visit to Afghanistan in 2010 which she paid with pleasure, accompanying the Hungarian delegation at Defence Minister Csaba Hende’s invitation. She said she took enormous pride in having been able to see the work done by the Hungarian and US soldiers serving shoulder-to-shoulder in the Asian country.

Answering a question from the audience after the presentation, Eleni Tsakopoulos Kounalakis praised again the work done by the Hungarian troops deployed in Afghanistan.

The ambassador noted that the Hungarians are hard-working and enthusiastic, adding that they seek the ways to assist the local people under all circumstances. She assessed the work done by both the HUN PRT and the OMLT as excellent. Speaking about the OMLT, she pointed to the importance of the joint task execution with the Ohio National Guard.