Hungarian minister discusses defence cooperation with German counterpart

Photo: MTI/AP/Mindaugas Kulbis

Germany is a key ally and a strategic partner of Hungary in defence development and policy, Defence Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said on Tuesday, after talks with Christine Lambrecht, his German counterpart.

Szalay-Bobrovniczky told public media his first official ministerial visit signalled a “strategic commitment beyond occasional ideological disagreements and government cycles” to Hungary-Germany relations.

Hungary has become a primary export market for Germany’s defence industry in recent years, he said.

The minister said the two countries shared the view that NATO should stay out of the war in Ukraine.

Regarding the NATO’s new strategy expected to be adopted at next week’s summit in Madrid, the minister said that besides the “Russian threat”, NATO should focus on “comprehensive defence”, which included combatting illegal migration, which is putting Hungarian border defence under enormous pressure.

As we wrote in May, according to the latest quarterly report from German company Rheinmetall, Hungary is well on the way to buying kamikaze drones from them for huge sums, details HERE.

The ministers also agreed that “largely illegal migration” increasing as a result of the economic crisis, “wartime inflation” and food shortage is another key issue.

Hungary and Germany have strategic interest in the security of the Western Balkans in the fight against migration, he said.

Hungary will raise defence spending to 2 percent of GDP in 2023, a year earlier than specified in its commitment to NATO, he said. German defence companies working in Hungary will benefit from that process, and will in turn contribute to economic development and job creation, the minister added.