On Thursday, 29 June, Deputy Minister of Defence Tamás Vargha attended the meeting of NATO ministers of defence in Brussels.

The main goal of the defence ministerial meeting was to take stock of the decisions taken at the Brussels meeting held at the end of May and the implementation of earlier tasks. Further topics of discussion included the tasks related to challenges in the east and the south, the strengthening of collective defence and the stepping up of the fight against terrorism.

On 23 June the EU heads of state and government made decisions about strengthening common European defence and launching a European Defence Fund. During their discussions, the defence ministers also reviewed the concrete proposal for the creation of the Fund and the current state of NATO–EU cooperation.

In the presence of High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini, the participants of the meeting discussed a number of topical issues in connection with further developing the EU common security and defence policy (CSDP).

While in Brussels, Deputy Minister of Defence Tamás Vargha stated that Hungary considers it highly important that Europe’s economic and political power can be underpinned by military power as well.  “We must protect the external borders of the EU, stop illegal migration and cooperate with sending and transit countries. It is an important step that we all agree with the importance of creating this Fund. Our common cause and interest is to strengthen internal security and take effective action against terrorism.”

Tamás Vargha added that Hungary’s line of policy has proven to be right. As the only one among European leaders, Prime Minister of Hungary Viktor Orbán was the first to alert to the danger, in a timely manner. We, Hungarians protected the Hungarian, European and Schengen borders by building a security barrier, and we keep protecting them to the present day. We must guarantee the security of Hungarian and European citizens, the deputy minister added.

Having joined NATO on 5 June, Montenegro was represented at the meeting as a full-fledged member state for the first time.