Hungary is a committed, loyal and esteemed ally

According to the minister, it is very important for NATO to preserve its defensive character. For this reason, too, he considers it to be highly significant that Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg have agreed on leaving out Hungary from the role that NATO intends to undertake in connection with the Ukraine war, with the participation of 31 countries. Hungary will not contribute any money, weapons or troops to this cooperation; however, it will not block it, either – emphasized the minister of defence.

Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky noted that Hungary reached the 2% of GDP level of the national budget spent on defence already last year, will maintain the same level this year, and wishes to continue maintaining it in the future as well. “This puts us into NATO’s elite group” – he pointed out. In his assessment, Hungary is among the firsts in terms of commitment to NATO, and this fact guarantees the security of the Hungarian people.

He said that Hungary continues its engagement with high troop levels in several international missions of NATO, performs air policing tasks in the Baltic states and neighboring countries, and the NATO Headquarters Multinational Division Centre (NATO HQ MND-C) is also operating in the area of Hungary.

Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky also revealed that the Ukrainian minister of defence had been present at the conference, and he had called his attention to the fact that the Hungarian ethnic minority is actively participating in the war. He said that “several of them have made the ultimate sacrifice by giving their lives for Ukraine.” He added that for this reason, it is fair to expect that the Hungarian ethnic minority in Ukraine can “obtain” all its earlier acquired rights.