“The countries of Central Europe are now ‘net security contributors’ to NATO operations; Hungary can be proud of its involvement”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared on Tuesday in Vilnius, where the foreign ministers of nine NATO member states began a two-day conference on security issues.

In his speech, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade reported on the fact there are currently 830 Hungarian soldiers serving at various points around the world within the framework of anti-terrorist and NATO missions, in addition to which there are 835 soldiers in Hungary under the command of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation’s standby command. “We, the countries of Central Europe, believe in the fact that NATO will be the world’s strongest and most successful military alliance not just now, but also in the future”, Mr. Szijjártó said, highlighting that if anyone, then the states of the region that is wedged between the East and the West are fully aware of the importance of NATO. The Minister said that in the Baltic the focus naturally rests mainly on challenges arriving from the East, and Hungary is acting in solidarity with the region’s states, and this is why in recent years it has taken part in land operations with 340 soldiers, in addition to supervising and securing Baltic airspace in two shifts with a total of 200 military personnel.

He added that in 2020 Hungarian Gripen fighters with Hungarian pilots will be returning to the Baltic countries. “In addition, challenges coming from the South are also important to Hungary, and tens and hundreds of thousands of people could now set out once again towards Europe illegally, and the Balkan migration route could again become saturated, which raises extremely serious security risks in view of the fact that uncontrolled immigration processes also open the way for terrorism”, he pointed out. “This must be handled as a security threat, and we expect our allies to also take this seriously”, he emphasised.

(MTI)