Defence minister Benkő meets Polish counterpart in Budapest

Defence Minister Tibor Benkő met Mariusz Blaszczak, his Polish counterpart, for talks on bilateral defence cooperation in Budapest on Tuesday.

At a press conference after the talks, the two parties highlighted similar positions on a number of topics including NATO, the Visegrad cooperation, as well as bilateral military ties. They also exchanged experiences regarding voluntary territorial reserves.

Parties at the talks signed a document under which Poland joined NATO’s health excellence centre headquartered in Budapest.

“It’s good that we see the tasks facing us in the same way to such an extent,” Benkő said.

Poland, he said, had fully shared Hungary’s view of illegal migration as early as 2015 and he thanked Poland for providing swift assistance to Hungary.

He also praised the V4 battle group which will perform its tasks together with Croatia in the second half of the year. Both agreed on the need to restart the battle group’s operations in 2023.

In the context of NATO, they were in agreement that threats from the east and south were special challenges for both countries.