“The acts of terrorism in Paris and Brussels clearly prove that terrorists have exploited the mass migration targeting the continent”, Minister of Defence István Simicskó stated on Friday, April 15 at the leading foreign policy and security forum in Central Europe, the Globsec 2016 conference held in Bratislava, Slovakia.

The Minister talked about this at a press conference, after he had conducted discussions at bilateral meetings with German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen and Slovak Defence Minister Peter Gajdos. The agenda of these bilateral meetings included current challenges in the field of security policy, among others issues of migration, terrorism and the fight against the Islamic State.

Summarizing his meeting with the German Minister of Defence, István Simicskó said that in comparison with earlier statements, to some extent the German politicians have now “shifted emphasis” in the field of security policy connected with migration.

“Europe has woken up late, and the leading German politicians now also admit to this fact”, István Simicskó pointed out, noting that in view of the risks, it appears that a defence mechanism is being put into action. He added that the recent developments could not be “assessed” any other way, as the acts of terrorism in Paris and Brussels clearly prove that terrorists have exploited the mass migration targeting the continent.

According to the Hungarian Minister of Defence, his German counterpart himself admitted that Europe cannot let the illegal migrants in, since there is a need for control mechanisms, and he also admitted that the external borders of the European Union were not secured, so we need to draw the lessons and reinforce their protection. “The last one year has taught several lessons, and now this is becoming palpable”, István Simicskó noted referring to the speakers’ contributions at the forum.

A number of other bilateral and multilateral meetings were scheduled for Friday, the first day of the Globsec conference. The invitees to the event – which was held with extraordinary security measures – included close to 1,000 guests from 70 countries of the world, among them heads of states and governments, former and incumbent ministers as well as experts and analysts in foreign/security policy and economy.

(Ministry of Defence)