National Defence Day in Hungary celebrated today

Today celebrated National Defence Day in Hungary. Photo: MTI

A shared remembrance “of our past allows us to recommit ourselves to continuing the thousand-year journey in defense of the Hungarian nation”, the defence minister said marking National Defence Day on Tuesday.

“Looking into the past, we see huge military achievements, such as the thousand-year-old state of St. Stephen, whose military heroes made surviving through victories and defeats possible…” Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said at the ceremony in Buda Castle.

“And then there’s the Hungarian Armed Forces established at the birth of the modern Hungarian nation, which has been at the service of the nation in times of peace, war, oppression and freedom.”

He said it was up to the government and diplomacy to ensure that the most important decisions in the life of the nation were still made in the nation’s capital.

“But in these times we have to be especially careful that nothing that goes against our fundamental national interests can be forced on us,”

he said, emphasising that defence played an important part in this.

Today celebrated National Defence Day in Hungary. Photo: MTI

Hungary, he said, had reason to be satisfied with its accomplishments in recent years, noting that it was building a high-tech military, and defence spending now exceeded 2 percent of GDP. He stressed the newly-built defense industry plants, the manufacturing of Lynx armored infantry fighting vehicles in Zalaegerszeg, small arms in Kiskunfélegyháza, Airbus helicopters in Gyula, the ammunition plant in Várpalota, and the production of Turkish Gidran armored fighting vehicles in Győr.

Szalay-Bobrovniczky said the military upgrade was underway, but there was still more to be done, and serious efforts were needed “to prepare for everything we can be presented within such times of war.” He said Hungary had to be capable of responding appropriately to every challenge.

Hungary has observed National Defence Day since May 21, 1992 to commemorate the retaking of Buda Castle on this day in 1849 after a three-week-long siege.