Defence cooperation between Slovakia and Hungary yields concrete results – defence ministers sign agreement on military aviation

Alongside Czechia and Poland, Slovakia will cooperate on military aviation with Hungary too. In practice, this means that if airspace of one State Party is violated, assets of another State Party may be utilised in response to such violation of airspace. On behalf of both governments, the Agreement on Cooperation in the Field of Military Aviation was signed by Slovak Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď and Hungarian Defence Minister Tibor Benkő at the Ministry of Defence in Bratislava today. Both leaders concurred that the Agreement comes an outcome of friendship between both countries, whilst pursuing sincere ties.

Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď made a remark about him launching the preparatory process for the Agreement as early as 2010, at a time when he held the post of Director General of the then Defence Policy, International Relations and Legislation Department in the Ministry of Defence. 10 years on, as Defence Minister he signed it today. “The signed Agreement enables the Slovak Air Force aircraft to fly into Hungarian airspace if an intruder aircraft is being intercepted and vice versa. Our long-term goal was to engage all V4 countries in cross-boarder cooperation on joint airspace protection, in other words, to extend the area of operations for Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) aircraft within NATINAMDS to include all four states. A pre-requisite for this to happen was to sign a series of bilateral agreements on cooperation in the field of military aviation. I trust other projects will be equally successful,” said Defence Minister Jaroslav Naď.

In addition to addressing V4 issues, the Ministers summarised the main areas of NATO and EU cooperation so far. Also discussed were PESCO projects and the deepening of cooperation in the form of a SVK contribution to NATO’s Headquarters Multinational Division Centre (HQ MND-C). Minister Naď updated his Hungarian counterpart on Slovakia’s success in meeting the Defence Investment Pledge – Slovakia is likely to meet its 2 per cent GDP spending goal by the end of this year already. Minister Naď emphasised that it is right and responsible to invest money in building the capabilities and infrastructure of the Slovak Armed Forces and in bolstering Slovakia’s defence responsiveness.

On developments regarding the SVK military’s COVID-19 operations, the head of the Slovak MOD briefed his Hungarian partner on Op Shared Responsibility. Mr Benkő was informed in detail of the preparation and conduct of the operation in terms of material, logistics and personnel. On behalf of the SVK Government, Mr Naď thanked the HUN Government for offering HUN civilian medical personnel to help with Phase 1 of the country-wide population testing for COVID-19. According to Minister Benkő, up to 3,700 military personnel are deployed in the fight against COVID-19 every day in Hungary. Of them, 1,200 are placed in hospitals and others go on mixed patrols with police officers. Minister Naď added that members of the SVK Armed Forces, too, have carried out assistance tasks in support of the SVK Police Corps.