The Minister of Defence expects honest service and efficient representation of the national interests

The Minister of Defence held an annual assessment and tasking conference for the defence, military and air attachés on Tuesday morning. The event was attended – among others – by the Commander of the Hungarian Defence Forces Lieutenant General Ferenc Korom. Tibor Benkő stressed that the military diplomats have to equally serve the interests of the country and the defence forces, and they must constantly respond to the challenges of the rapidly changing world. We need well-prepared experts for this, who are familiar with the world’s events, Hungary’s foreign policy, economic, defence political objectives and tasks. “You are the best and firmest advocates of the interests of Hungary if you stand up for our interests and values in the performance of your duties at all times, doing this diplomatically, resolutely, purposefully" – the Defence Minister said.

Tibor Benkő pointed out that the current processes may change direction even from one day to the next, which requires the attachés to have precise, accurate situation awareness every moment of the day. He mentioned among the challenges of our times the situation emerging in the Middle East, North Africa, Ukraine and the Western Balkans, as well as in the border areas of the Baltic States, the terror attacks holding the world in constant fear. As he noted, the main direction of our peacekeeping tasks continues to point towards the Western Balkans. He highlighted the representation of the interests of the Alliance in addition to representing the national interests. As he said, with the annexation of the Crimea, Russia carried out such an operation, which we could never before see. After the asymmetric warfare, earlier characteristic in Afghanistan and in Iraq, the hybrid warfare consisting of a large number of components appeared, including among others the operations in the cyber space. This is also a priority area.

The Hungarian Defence Forces must operate in a strong, powerful and modern form in such circumstances: they must be strong in such a way, that both in their strength, equipment, in respect of their technical devices, material supplies they are capable to represent Hungary’s interests, to guarantee the security of the Hungarian people, both independently, and within the system of the Alliance. The guarantee of this is the Zrínyi 2026 National Defence and Armed Forces Development Program, for which the Government provides moral and financial support: the task of the Hungarian Defence Forces is to fill the program with such content, which serves the interests of the soldiers and the Hungarian people. This means in practice among others that the developments and the purchases are made on basis of the soldiers’ needs. The Minister spoke about the termination of the integrated ministerial body, and the establishment and the role of the Hungarian Defence Forces Command.

As Tibor Benkő pointed out, this is a ten-year development program, but a longer foresight is necessary. The Government undertook to use 2 percent of the country’s GDP to defence expenditure, and 20 percent to developments by 2024. The latter was already met by the Ministry in 2018. Tibor Benkő spoke in detail about the developments, such as the expansion of the fixed and rotary wing capacity, the acquisition of radars, the modernisation of the air-defence systems and the ground forces, and the training-educational activities related to this. The military leadership wants to ensure the soldiers state-of-the-art technical equipment corresponding to the 21st century demands: he mentioned as an example the Leopard 2 A7+ combat vehicles, self-propelled guns and anti-tank weapons, the acquisition of which has already started. The Ministry wants to replace the BTRs with other armoured transport vehicles in the future. The Minister mentioned the importance of the task to strengthen the social relations of the Hungarian Defence Forces (HDF), and the further development of the patriotic education and the cadet program, and the volunteer reserve system (VRS) as well.

As Tibor Benkő said, the strength of the armed forces should be enlarged both in quantity and quality, which is a big challenge in today’ labour market conditions, where the HDF has to compete with large international companies. This is served by the scheduled update of the military career model introduced. In the spirit of this the issue of the remuneration and other allowances is always on the agenda. The Minister said that the personal base of the HDF personnel should consist of well-prepared non-commissioned officers, who speak languages, who can be entrusted the training of the soldiers, their preparation for the operational tasks. Accordingly, the NCO-training will be launched in a new way, through the Acélkocka (Steel Cube) program.

At the end of his lecture, the Minister asked the military diplomats for the worthy representation of the national interests and values, for honest service, and wished every success to the performance of their duties.