Parliamentary State Secretary and Deputy Minister at the Ministry of Defence Tamás Vargha held discussions on the strengthening of defence cooperation among the Visegrád Four (V4) countries in Krakow, Poland.

On 12 May, at the Senior Body meeting organized by the Polish presidency of the Visegrád Group, the deputy ministers of the four ministries of defence reviewed a wide range of political and practical issues on the agenda of the V4 countries. The Hungarian delegation was headed by Tamás Vargha, Parliamentary State Secretary of the Ministry of Defence.

At the meeting, the deputy ministers discussed the training of the V4 EU Battle Group, which – after a successful standby period in the first half of 2016 – has again been declared for the second half of 2019, and also looked into the possibilities of expanding the battle group in the long run. The expert seminar on the topics held on the previous day served as a lead-up to the exchange of ideas. 

The deputy ministers discussed current issues related to NATO and the EU defence policy, with special regard to the topics of the upcoming NATO Summit, namely burden sharing among member states and NATO’s role in counter-terrorism.

In closing the meeting, the Visegrád Four partners exchanged views on the current status of the EU Global Strategy Implementation Plan for Foreign and Security Policy, and also on the regional joint airspace protection cooperation of the V4 countries.

(Ministry of Defence)