NATO defence ministers held a day-long meeting at NATO Headquarters in Brussels on Thursday 8 October 2015. The Hungarian minister of defence conducted several bilateral discussions in addition to the meeting.
Dr. István Simicskó met his German, Lithuanian, Romanian, Slovak, Polish and Czech counterparts and had an introductory discussion with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and NATO’s military leaders.
The representatives from the Visegrád Four countries present at the meeting assured Dr. Simicskó of their solidarity in dealing with the wave of migration affecting Hungary. Lithuanian representatives thanked Hungary for having participated with four Gripen fighters in the Baltic Air Policing Mission since September this year.
The NATO defence ministers made a decision about the establishment of forty-man forward NATO Force Integration Units (NFIUs) in Hungary and Slovakia, similar to the small NATO command centres that have already been set up in the Baltic countries, Poland, Romania and Bulgaria.
According to Dr. Simicskó, the establishment of the Hungarian NFIU will strengthen NATO’s collective defence and fill an important gap, because these will be the first NATO command elements to be set up in Hungary since the country’s accession to NATO in 1999. The Minister of Defence said that the NFIU would increase Hungary’s security in a way that does not present threats to anyone.
At the meeting the defence ministers discussed the new direct security threats and challenges to NATO, the most important of which remain the still unresolved crisis in Ukraine, the now four-year-long Syrian civil war, and the expansion of the Islamic State terror organisation in Iraq and Syria. This chaotic situation in some countries of North Africa and the Middle East is the primary cause of the unprecedented migration crisis hitting Europe.
The ministers gave their approval to a new concept for the NATO Response Force (NRF), which will double the NRF’s strength to around 40,000 troops. Furthermore, a Very High Readiness Joint Task Force (VJTF) will be formed within the NRF structure, ready to deploy anywhere within two days.
The ministers also addressed some issues that will be on the agenda of the Warsaw NATO Summit next summer. These include NATO’s long-term “adaptation” responses to new threats emanating from the East and the South, as these threats will probably be long-standing ones. They also exchanged ideas about whether – in adapting to the challenges of the 21st century – it is necessary to consider cyberspace as a theatre of war like land, sea or air.
The defence ministers also discussed NATO’s possible responses to the new Russian nuclear strategy and Russian rhetoric which increasingly frequently refers to nuclear capabilities.
Speaking about the handling of the migration crisis, Dr. Simicskó said that the Alliance is closely monitoring events and is ready to contribute to dealing with the root causes; for example, it has provided assistance in developing the military forces of countries in the region.
A meeting of the NATO-Georgia Commission also took place. In this, NATO defence ministers and their Georgian counterpart discussed the Caucasus region’s security situation, and looked to the possibilities of increasing partnership and defence cooperation between NATO and Georgia.