Orbán: Next decade to bring epidemics, mass migration

NATO and its member states must be prepared to face challenges posed by epidemics and mass migration in the coming decade, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Monday, ahead of a one-day summit of NATO in Brussels.

Concerning the summit, Orbán said that participants could make it a “turning point” by adopting the organisation’s new strategic plan for up to 2030, and he expressed support for the draft.

Orbán said the new strategy was aimed at strengthening “national resistance capabilities”, adding that Hungary actively contributed to such efforts “whether it is the fight against the coronavirus or against migration”.

“We have something to say and we have something to contribute,” the prime minister said.

Concerning a commitment NATO’s members have made to raising their defence spending to 2 percent of their GDP, Orbán said: “We’ll be good once we deliver on our commitments.” He said Hungary would reach that goal by 2022-23, adding that he wished Hungary were in that position already. He noted, however, that some NATO members were further off that target. Hungary, he added, has already met another commitment to use 20 percent of its defence budget on developments, and the country was in the “forefront” in respect of those obligations.

Hungary has significant role in NATO, says foreign minister

“We live in a place where you cannot exist without an army, where there is no security without the military,” Orbán said.

Having military capabilities and an operational military force “will always be crucial for Hungarian families and for the Hungarian nation”, he said, adding that building those capacities was “in the course of making good progress”. The military “fell in neglect for the past 20-30 years, but now I think we are putting Hungary back on the map,” he added.

Answering a question about challenges posed by China, Orbán said that Hungary was against any kind of cold war. He said he had spent 26 years of his life among such circumstances and insisted that “it is a bad thing, believe me, we should not do that”.