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.

At the meeting held in Pozsony (Bratislava, Slovakia), the Hungarian delegation, which also included Lieutenant-General Dr Zoltán Orosz, Deputy Chief of Staff, was headed by Deputy Minister Tamás Vargha, Minister of State at the Ministry of Defence.

The purpose of this year’s meeting of the Hungarian-Slovak military mixed committee was to exchange views on the V4 cooperation, current defence policy issues and bilateral military cooperation. Hungary is committed to intensifying close Hungarian-Slovak bilateral cooperation as we have common interests as well as common problems and achievements in the Central-European region.

The attendees of the meeting further covered the management of mass migration, the changes in the state of security caused by the crisis in Ukraine, and the military cooperation of the V4. Important elements of the latter – and also one of the achievements of the decisions adopted at the Warsaw NATO summit – are the rotation-based presence for training purposes of the V4 in the Baltic States planned for this year and the plan to set up a new common EU Battlegroup in 2019.

In the context of bilateral relations, regular international exercises which are attended by the defence forces of both countries (Blonde Avalanche, Sárarany Mező, Toxic Valley) were discussed as a particular priority. During the course of the talks, the parties further covered the air policing agreement between the two countries and the status of the Slovak-Hungarian war graves agreement.

In the context of the latter, the Hungarian delegation also expressed hope that they will succeed in finding a compromise on the issues in dispute within the shortest possible time, and that the talks which have been ongoing for some fifteen years now may finally be brought to a conclusion. Almost every Hungarian family is personally concerned in the tragedy of the World Wars, and it is also for this reason that it is very important that a satisfactory agreement should be reached between the two countries.

During the course of the meeting, the Hungarian delegation welcomed the involvement of the Slovak army in the NATO Centre of Excellence for Military Medicine.

(Ministry of Defence)