On Tuesday in Budapest Parliamentary State Secretary Tamás Vargha received a delegation from the British Group of the Inter-Parliamentary Union.
Speaking in the program of TV channel M1 on Monday evening, Minister of Defence Dr. István Simicskó pointed out that the Hungarian Defence Forces must be strengthened not only because of NATO but also for our own self-esteem and the security of Hungarian citizens.
“The goals of the new government of the United States confirm the correctness of Hungarian security policy thinking, it became apparent at the 53rd Munich Security Conference (MSC)”, Minister of Defence István Simicskó highlighted on Sunday with regard to the meeting in the Bavarian capital in a telephone statement to Hungarian news agency MTI.
Speaking to Hungarian journalists during a two-day Meeting of NATO Ministers of Defence in Brussels, Minister of Defence Dr. István Simicskó stated that the American approach to the fight against terrorism and to crisis management at multiple hot spots is reassuring to Hungary, because it is largely the same as Hungary’s position.
Speaking at the annual assessment and tasking conference of leaders of the Hungarian Defence Forces, Minister of Defence Dr. István Simicskó emphasized that the goal is to ensure that the Hungarian Defence Forces become a major military force in the region by 2026.
On 8 February 2017, the Austrian presidency of the Central European Defence Cooperation (CEDC) organized a conference in Vienna with the title “Managing Migration Challenges Together”. The meeting was attended by ministers of defence and the interior from member states of the extended CEDC+ and the extended “Forum Salzburg”.
Speaking at a press conference held in Kelebia, Bács-Kiskun County, Chief of Defence Gen. Dr. Tibor Benkő announced that the Kelebia border protection base of the Hungarian Defence Forces has been completed, and the installations at Bácsalmás, Madaras and Hercegszántó are expected to be finished by the spring. These facilities will provide modern field accommodation for altogether 600 men.
Minister of Defence Dr. István Simicskó received Russian Deputy Minister of Defence Yuriy Ivanovich Borisov for a courtesy visit in Budapest on Wednesday, 1 February.
In a recent interview to the journal Figyelő, Minister of Defence Dr. István Simicskó stated that in addition to the current strength of the Hungarian Defence Forces, there is a need for some 20,000 volunteer reservists as well.
The agenda of the meeting of the Hungarian-Slovak military mixed committee held on 17 January also featured current security issues, bilateral military cooperation, the joint war graves agreement and the implementation of the decisions of the Warsaw summit.