On Tuesday, 14 June Chief of Defence Gen. Dr. Tibor Benkő received Chief of the General Staff of the Serbian Armed Forces Gen. Ljubisa Diković at an official Serbian–Hungarian border meeting held in Szeged, Hungary.
This year again, the meeting provided an opportunity to discuss issues concerning regional security and the current state of bilateral military cooperation. During the discussions, the main emphasis was still placed on coordinating military activities in response to the crisis caused by illegal migration.
At the plenary discussion of the meeting, the two delegations reviewed the current state of illegal migration and talked about the experiences of the period since the completion of the Temporary Security Barrier on the border. The Hungarian delegation gave an update on the military aspects of security challenges related to mass migration and the legal background to declaring a state of crisis and authorizing military engagement. The two sides agreed that the migration pressure on Europe will persist as long as the problems in the source countries remain unsolved. Therefore, a permanent solution requires these countries to address the root causes of the problems. Nevertheless, the military cooperation between Serbia and Hungary is of key importance in handling, on a regional level, the situation that has been going on for nearly a year.
The two countries have traditionally good military-to-military relations, which are strengthened by regular bilateral meetings.
In the second half of the meeting, the Serbian delegation attended a presentation about the Volunteer Reservist System in Hungary, and then the participants discussed issues related to military-to-military relations.
The meeting was characterized by an open and sincere atmosphere, and the two chiefs of defence agreed that the ongoing efficient cooperation between Hungary and Serbia is a precondition for the two countries being able to give effective responses to newly emerging challenges, which contributes to creating a more secure region and a more stable Europe.