Speaking at a commemoration held on Saturday, 27 August to mark the 490th anniversary of the Battle of Mohács at the National Memorial Place of Mohács, Minister of Defence István Simicskó stated that “today we must guarantee the Hungarian people’s future and security against the new forms of emerging threats.
In his welcome speech delivered at the military officers’ commissioning ceremony held on Saturday, 20th August outside Parliament building in Kossuth Lajos Square, Minister of Defence István Simicskó emphasized that “the Hungarian state is a fixed point in a changing world”.
Minister of Defence István Simicskó has bidden farewell in Tata to close to 500 Hungarian troops to deploy with foreign missions, and presented the personnel serving at the borders with Service Medals for Handling the Migration Crisis.
“The Hungarian Defence Forces are taking part in major operations involving a great deal of responsibility also at present both within and beyond our borders, but even amidst circumstances such as these, it is extremely important to develop cooperation with our NATO allies”, Defence Minister Dr István Simicskó stressed on the open-press day of the international military training exercise called Panther Strike 2016 held at the Pápa air base of the Hungarian Defence Forces on Wednesday, 27 July.
Minister of Defence Dr. István Simicskó was part of the Hungarian delegation at the working meeting within the framework of which Prime Minster Viktor Orbán received Chancellor of Austria Christian Kern on Tuesday 26 July in Budapest.
In a phone interview from Washington, Deputy Minister Tamás Vargha, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Defence told Hungarian News Agency MTI that “the terrorist organization named Islamic State (IS) is on the decline”.
On Thursday, 20 July, Hungarian Deputy Minister of Defence Tamás Vargha attended, in Washington D.C., the meeting of defence ministers of the Global Coalition to Counter the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). He was accompanied on his journey by Péter Siklósi, Deputy State Secretary for Defence and Security Policy of the Ministry of Defence.
The Defence and Law Enforcement Committee of the Hungarian National Assembly held an extramural session at the Röszke border crossing point on Monday, 19 July. The meeting was also attended by Chief of Defence Gen. Dr. Tibor Benkő.
On the evening of Friday, 15 July, due to the events in Turkey, at the request of the Commander of EUFOR (COMEUFOR), the soldiers of a maneuver company serving in Sarajevo with the Hungarian Defence Forces EUFOR Contingent (EUFOR HUNCON) entered a standby period and postponed their scheduled return home on the following day. The decision was approved by Hungarian Chief of Defence Gen. Dr. Tibor Benkő.
As a member of the Hungarian delegation led by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, Minister of Defence István Simicskó attended the NATO Summit and had discussions with his partners in Warsaw on 8-9 July.