The Czech Republic and Hungary are going on the same road, so cooperation and exchange of lessons learned between the armed forces are equally important for both partners, Gen. Petr Pavel and Gen. Tibor Benkő the chiefs of defence of the two countries concluded at a press conference held after their discussion in Prague on Wednesday, April 16.

“During the discussion, we agreed that it is very important to us that we are going on the same road, have common goals, and all we need to do is to share our lessons learned with each other” – Gen. Tibor Benkő, the Chief of the Defence Staff told journalists. He explained that the lessons the Czech Republic learned while carrying out air policing missions in the Baltic countries are very useful to Hungary. The Hungarian Defence Forces are going to perform this kind of mission next year. For this reason, the Hungarian partners asked Prague to share its lessons learned with them, because “that would make it significantly easier to train and prepare Hungarian soldiers”.

“The cooperation with Hungary is very close in several fields. During the discussions, we focused on areas which are priorities for both partners”, Lt.-Gen. Petr Pavel, Czech Chief of Defence said. “We have discussed some joint procurement projects, which enable us to attain more efficiency with less expenditure”, he added.
Going into details, he told the press that they had discussed the procurement of multifunctional helicopters, which presents both partners with the same issues, and also exchanged views about the establishment of an international helicopter pilot training centre.

At the meeting on Wednesday, the Czech partners showed interest in the way Hungary has built up the system of active reserve.

The Hungarian chief of defence – who is staying in the Czech Republic on a two-day visit – also met with Daniel Kostoval, State Secretary of the Czech Ministry of Defence. Further topics on the agenda at the meeting of Tibor Benkő and his Czech partners included the establishment of a planned joint V4 EU battle group, and the participants discussed the current situation in Ukraine too.

(Ministry of Defence, MTI)