Minister of Defence Csaba Hende signed multilateral cooperation agreements in Brussels on Tuesday, on the sidelines of a meeting of EU defence ministers.
One of the documents signed is an update of the Hungarian-Slovenian-Italian defence agreement concluded 15 years ago, whereas the other one is an agreement with Latvia, Lithuania and Great-Britain to facilitate the involvement of the EU's eastern partners in activities falling within the scope of the common security and defence policy.
In line with the updated Multi-National Land Forces cooperation agreement, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy will expand the joint units' scope of operations. Accordingly, they will become deployable in NATO, EU and UN missions without any geographical restriction, if the participating countries are in consensus about the action to be taken.
The technical agreement between Britain, Hungary, Latvia and Lithuania involves setting up a fund to help eastern partners participate in training. France and Luxembourg have already indicated their willingness to join the fund.
The ministers attending the meeting overviewed the security situation in Ukraine and the Middle East.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who was also been invited to attend the meeting, reported to the EU Ministers on the situation in Ukraine, confirming concerns with regard to Russian troop reinforcements.
At the EU meeting, political framework documents were adopted on long-term defence cooperation and cyber defence policy, with reference to which Mr. Hende pointed out that the slogan of last year’s EU meeting was “defence matters”.
“The past few months have proven that the issue of military capabilities came into the spotlight at the right time”, he noted.
The Ministers reviewed military operations currently underway within the framework of EU security and defence policy, with relation to which the Hungarian Minister of Defence stated that Hungary was playing an active role in four such operations: Bosnia-Hercegovina, the Central African Republic, Somalia and Mali. Mr. Hende also said that the performance of the Hungarian military had received praise during his trip to the Balkans last weekend.
The Minister also welcomed the UN Security Council’s decision to extend the mandate of the EUFOR ALTHEA operation in Bosnia-Hercegovina.
Acting in their role of Steering Board of the European Defence Agency (EDA), at their meeting in Brussels on Tuesday the EU Defence Ministers also reviewed the EDA Work Plan for the upcoming years and discussed possible new methods for selecting the organisation’s next leader. The mandate of the current Head of the EDA, Federica Mogherini, will expire on January 15.