Minister of Defence Csaba Hende and his Serbian counterpart Bratislav Gasic discussed opportunities of cooperation between the Hungarian and Serbian ministries of defence and current issues in security policy at their meeting in Belgrade on Thursday, 22 January.
The Hungarian Defence Forces continue their engagement in Afghanistan in the framework of the NATO-led Resolute Support Mission (RSM), which started on 1 January 2015. The new mission focuses on training and mentoring the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) and on giving advice to government organs.
“We will defend the cause of Polish and Hungarian freedom in all circumstances”, Minister of Defence Csaba Hende said on Sunday, at a commemoration held on the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Limanowa on Jabloniec Hill, near Limanowa, Poland.
Two Gripen fighters of the Hungarian Air Force conducted a familiarization flight in the airspace of Estonia on Wednesday, December 10. The aircraft are getting ready to join NATO’s Baltic Air Policing Mission in 2014, the Directorate of the General Staff of the Estonian Armed Forces announced in Tallinn.
Minister of Defence Csaba Hende signed multilateral cooperation agreements in Brussels on Tuesday, on the sidelines of a meeting of EU defence ministers.
According to plans, the Hungarian contingent serving in Kosovo is going to receive 12 refurbished Humvee combat vehicles in December, Minister of Defence Csaba Hende announced during his visit to the Hungarian troops serving with the NATO-led international peacekeeping force (Kosovo Force, KFOR) in the northern part of Kosovo.
At present, Hungary is not planning to reinforce the Hungarian military contingent serving with KFOR in Kosovo because its capacities have been raised significantly, by around 150 this year, Minister of Defence Csaba Hende stated on Friday, when he met the Hungarian soldiers serving with the mission at the Pristina headquarters of the NATO-led peacekeeping force.
The Hungarian troops participating in NATO Exercise “Iron Sword 2014” have arrived in Lithuania.
Hungary contributes more than 100 troops to the new NATO-led mission which is to start next January in Afghanistan, and assists the financing of the Afghan National Security Forces with USD 500,000 per year between 2015 and 2017, the Minister of Defence said at a conference in Budapest on Thursday.
A joint military exercise of five NATO countries including Hungary started in Slovakia on Monday, the Slovak defence ministry announced.