In addition to members of the military, the Member States of the Visegrád cooperation (V4) also offered police personnel to help protect Hungary’s southern border section, the Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade said at the meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament.
Kristóf Altusz told the Committee: the Czech Republic and Poland offered 50 police personnel each, while Slovakia offered 20, to help their Hungarian counterparts maintain law and order and public security on Hungary’s southern border section.
The Deputy State Secretary reiterated: 21 Czech soldiers have already arrived in Hungary. They are preparing for a state of crisis caused by mass immigration in a joint training exercise called Balaton 2015. According to plans, also as part of the military cooperation offered with a view to the management of the migration crisis, as of 1 November, 30 Slovak soldiers will arrive in Hungary as well, the Deputy State Secretary added, remarking: the fact that the V4 succeeded in agreeing on military and policing cooperation this swiftly and effectively indicates that the countries of the Visegrád cooperation understand one another precisely.
At the Thursday meeting of the Foreign Affairs Committee, in addition to confirming the offering of the Czech assistance, Juraj Chmiel, the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Hungary also outlined the plans and priorities of his country’s V4 presidency. The Czech presidency will be about the reinforcement of trust and cohesion, the Ambassador said, remarking: they are especially preparing for February 2016 when the Member States will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the establishment of the alliance.
He further rendered an account of the status of the Visegrád Fund, and the V4-EU Battlegroup to be set up next year. He spoke about the reinforcement of the European Neighbourhood Policy, and security and defence policy cooperation among the four countries, with special regard to the area of cyber security. He also made mention of the so-called V4 plus plans, based on which the four countries should form close cooperation with further countries, not only in Europe but also with the United States, the United Kingdom, or even South-Korea.
In response, Mr Altusz said: based on the Hungarian position, a Central-European V4 plus would be realistic in the first round. After that, in another phase, it would be possible to involve other, more remote countries in the cooperation as well.
Zsolt Németh, Fidesz Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of Parliament reiterated that quite a few people – especially at the beginning of the year – had already begun burying the Visegrád cooperation. This is why he deems it important that the restoration of trust is the keynote of the Czech presidency.
In this context, Márton Gyöngyös, Vice-Chair of the Committee (Jobbik), too, evaluated the account rendered by the Czech Ambassador in a positive light. He highlighted, for instance, that the migration crisis clearly demonstrated that Europe’s neighbourhood policy is not uniform, and the V4 are thinking in terms of different social systems compared with some Western-European partner states.
Juraj Chmiel, Kristóf Altusz and Zsolt Németh all drew attention to the fact at the meeting of the Committee that, due to the pressure of migration, the crisis in Ukraine and the situation of the countries of the Western Balkans have been somewhat marginalised in international politics. Mr Németh highlighted: helping Ukraine continues to remain a key priority, in order to ensure that the reforms in Ukraine do not slow down. The politician from the government party takes the view that whatever political solution will be conceived for the resolution of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict also depends “to a not insignificant extent” on the V4 countries.