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Lieutenant General Ferenc Kajári

14:33 May 9, 2023

Lieutenant General Ferenc Kajári was born on 5th July 1967 in Budapest, Hungary. He is married to Veronika and has a daughter and a son.

Upon graduating from the military secondary school, he joined the Kossuth Lajos Military College of the Hungarian Defence Forces in 1985. He commissioned as a Second Lieutenant in 1988 with an armoured reconnaissance officer degree and a general engineer degree.

Between 1988 and 1996, Major General Kajári served in various Infantry Brigades and MI positions as a platoon leader, company commander, S2 staff officer and Brigade S2.

In 1996, he was assigned to the Hungarian Engineer Contingent of IFOR and served as an S2 and liaison officer in the staff. On completion of his deployment, his career continued at the Ministry of Defence, where he served in a number of positions, most notably as the Aide-de-Camp to the Deputy State Secretary for NATO Integration. In 1998 he was selected to deploy in one of the newly established Partnership for Peace staff positions, and was assigned to the Headquarters of SACLANT, where he served in the PfP staff element until Hungary’s NATO accession in 1999 when he repositioned to serve in the Education and Training Department until his return to Hungary in 2001.

From 2001 he was serving in different staff positions at the J2 Directorate of the Hungarian Defence Forces. In the same year he enrolled to the National Defence University, and in 2004 earned his Master’s degree in military leadership.

In 2004 he deployed to Darfur as an EU representative and Military Observer of the African Union Mission in the Sudan (AMIS), where by the second half of his tour he organised the S2 section in his sector and became the sector S2 chief. In 2007 he deployed to Afghanistan, where he served as the first Hungarian Chief CJ2, ACOS in RC-North of ISAF.

Between 2014 and 2015 he attended the General Staff Course of the National University of Public Service, where he earned the “ZRÍNYI Award” of the class of 2015.

In 2016 he was appointed as the director of the Military National Security Service Intelligence Directorate. In 2017 he was promoted to Brigadier General, and in 2021 to Major General, and in 2023 to Lieutenant General.

2021 marks his most noted tour as he was selected and deployed to the position of Commander of the NATO mission KFOR until the hand-over in 2022 when he continued his service as the director of the Military National Security Service Intelligence Directorate until his promotion to which took up to his new assignment to Deputy Chief of Defence Staff on 8th May 2023

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Minister of Defence Lays Wreath in Brussels

07:10 October 24, 2021

On 22nd October, Minister of Defence Tibor Benkő, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Permanent Representative of Hungary in NATO Zoltán Nagy, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Hungary to Belgium and Luxembourg Iván Tamás Kovács, and Lieutenant General Gábor Böröndi, Head of the Military Representative Office laid a wreath in the presence of Piarist Priest István Havas and members of the Hungarian 1956 Diaspora.

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Tibor Benkő: The peace and security of the Western Balkans is a top priority for Hungary

16:35 October 22, 2021

The peace and security of the Western Balkans is a top priority both for Hungary and NATO, Defence Minister Tibor Benkő stated in a break of the Meeting of NATO Ministers of Defence in Brussels on Friday, 22 October.

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Commander of Hungarian Defence Forces receives United Kingdom’s ambassador accredited to Hungary

16:29 October 22, 2021

On Friday, 22 October Lieutenant General Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi PhD, Commander, Hungarian Defence Forces received in his office Paul Fox, Ambassador of the United Kingdom accredited to Hungary.

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In a reach of activation

11:25 October 22, 2021

The script of the Memorandum of Understanding, the fundamental document of the Headquarters Multinational Division – Centre, located in Székesfehérvár, was harmonized by respective Member States during a two-day conference in Belgium.

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The stability of the Western Balkans is in our common interest

09:30 October 20, 2021

Lieutenant General Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi PhD, Commander of the Hungarian Defence Forces paid a three-day official visit to North Macedonia at the invitation of Lieutenant General Vasko Gjurchinovski, Chief of Defence of the Balkan country. At their meeting, the two leaders discussed the details of possible cooperation.

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Hungarian Commander in Charge of KFOR

16:25 October 16, 2021

The Film City Military Base in Kosovo saw a change of command ceremony on 15th October: Major General Ferenc Kajári took over the command of KFOR from Italian General Franco Federici. With his appointment, for the first time in the history of the Kosovo peacekeeping mission, a Hungarian commander will head NATO's 22-year-long mission, for which some four thousand troops from twenty-eight countries are contributed.

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V4 military cooperation becomes closer

06:00 October 15, 2021

“The history of the V4 shows that the Visegrád Group represents a significant added value for Europe”, said Lieutenant General Romulusz Ruszi-Szendi PhD, Commander, Hungarian Defence Forces at the signing of an agreement after the conference of Visegrád Four Chiefs of Defence on 13 October.

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New Austrian defence attaché in Budapest

05:55 October 15, 2021

On Wednesday, 13 October Lieutenant General Zoltán Mihócza, Chief of Staff, Hungarian Defence Forces Command (HDFC) received in his office outgoing Austrian defence attaché Brigadier General Daniel Pregl and the incoming one, Brigadier General Manfred Hanzl.

National Military Strategy of Hungary

21:27 October 13, 2021

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Italian defence policy director visits Budapest

12:02 October 8, 2021

On Thursday, 7 October Deputy State Secretary for Defence Policy Dr. Gergely Németh received Major General Giovanni Maria Iannucci, Policy Director, Italian Defence General Staff in Budapest. After the meeting, the major general received the Officer’s Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit from Defence State Secretary István Szabó.