Minister of Defence Dr. István Simicskó received Chairman of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee Avi Dichter and his Israeli delegation in his office in Budapest on Tuesday, 17 October.
At the bilateral meeting, the parties discussed such important issues as the situation in the Middle East, security challenges and migration (with particular attention to migration routes crossing the Western Balkans, the Black Sea and Southern European countries), as well as terrorism and its possible implications on modern-day mass migration.
The effective handling of the related asymmetric challenges (in addition to terrorism, regional instability, overpopulation, etc.) is one of the priority areas of Hungarian security policy, but is also of extreme importance to the State of Israel, Dr. Simicskó highlighted.
The Minister and his negotiating partner also discussed military and defence industry cooperation between the two countries. The actuality of the topic is given by the recently launched Zrinyi 2026 Defence and Military Development Programme, which is Hungary’s most complex and comprehensive military development plan in 25 years.
Also present at the meeting were Israel’s Ambassador to Budapest Yossi Amrani and his deputy, Fares Saeb.