On Monday, 8 June Gen. Dr. Tibor Benkő, Chief of Defence attended a conference held in Qatar, which brought together Chiefs of Defence Staffs of countries participating in an international coalition against the Islamic State.
The topics of the conference involving representatives of 20 nations were the evaluation of coalition activities and the discussion of future tasks, and the meeting provided the military leaders with an opportunity to hold bilateral discussions as well.
More than 60 countries have so far joined the international coalition to counter the Islamic State, and one-third of them – including Hungary – assumes a military role in the tasks. As part of the Western community of values, Hungary has already been participating in the political activities of the Counter-ISIS coalition and in supporting Iraq. Among others, it sent humanitarian aid worth € 70,000 and offered close to 250 tons of ammunition for the Iraqi government in August 2014 which was delivered to Kurdistan in several phases until February this year.
On April 14 the Hungarian National Assembly approved the participation of the Hungarian Defence Forces in a military mission of the coalition to be conducted in Iraq/Kurdistan. Of the planned 150-strong contingent, some 120 soldiers will serve in Northern Iraq, and another 27 will be available in Hungary to provide rotation.
The troops of the Hungarian Defence Forces will carry out Force Protection tasks at a German- and Italian-led training centre in Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan. The centre provides the Kurdish Peshmerga forces with international assistance for the capability development of the Kurdish armed forces in the fight against the Islamic State.