György Bakondi, Chief Security Advisor to the Prime Minister, has told public television station M1 that there is now complete calm on Hungary’s borders with Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia. He also noted, however, that the Government of Hungary will continue to monitor events on the other side of the borders. He added that a multilateral meeting of chiefs of police will be held in Vienna next week, where police measures needed to secure the borders will be discussed.

According to Mr. Bakondi’s announcement, the Hungarian Police caught 22 people crossing the border illegally on Monday, and 36 on Tuesday. There were no illegal border crossings on the Croatian border section. He pointed out that the average of 25–30 cases per day is a figure approximating “periods of peace”, adding that the situation on the southern border section is normal.

The Chief Advisor stressed that the cooperation between the Visegrád countries is a great achievement, as now they are not only harmonising their stances, but are in fact actively cooperating to protect the borders. Mr. Bakondi noted that as part of this cooperation Czech soldiers recently arrived in Hungary to secure the borders of Hungary, and that on Tuesday Slovakian police officers joined them.

According to Mr. Bakondi, this cooperation has extraordinary political significance: it is not by chance that the Slovakian police officers were seen off by the Prime Minister of Slovakia, and welcomed by the Hungarian Minister of Interior. Together with the Hungarian police forces, they will carry out border patrol tasks on the Serbian border section, Mr. Bakondi explained. He also noted that in the future similar agreements will also be signed with Czech and Polish counterparts.

(Prime Minister's Office)