The international community and the Afghan people both highly appreciate the Hungarian soldiers’ performance, which will be of great weight in considering Hungary’ future role in Afghanistan, Minister of Defence Csaba Hende stated during his tour of inspection at the Hungarian contingents in Afghanistan.

The Minister of Defence said that through their performance, the Hungarian troops had earned not only unanimous recognition from the international community but also the gratitude of the Afghan government and the Afghan people.

In recent days Minister Hende paid a visit to the HDF Kabul International Airport Force Protection Contingent (HDF KAIA FPC), where the second Hungarian rotation arrived some days ago, since due to the Hungarian troops’ achievements, the Hungarian Defence Forces have been requested to continue performing guard and security duties at the Kabul International Airport.

The Minister paid a visit to the headquarters of Special Operations Task Force 10 under which the Hungarian Special Operations Contingent is serving, and heard reports from the commanders of the contingents deployed in Kabul and its environs. He held discussions with the Afghan Minister of Defence, the Deputy Commander of the NATO International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), the ambassador of the European Union and NATO’s Senior Civilian Representative.

The Minister of Defence said that the Afghanistan mission would be transformed by the end of 2014, and from that point on, the emphasis would shift to training and advisory roles. The future commitments of participating countries will take shape during discussions held on international and national levels. At the same time, the Minister also noted that visits and discussions like the present one contribute a lot to understanding the partners’ priorities and the things they value the most.

By way of example, Minister Hende pointed out that on several occasions the Afghan Minister of Defence had praised very highly the Hungarian Mi-17 Air Advisory Team (AAT) deployed at Shindand Air Base, (Herat Province, Western Afghanistan) which trains transport helicopter pilots. In his opinion, it has now become clear that the Afghan government places a very high value on this Hungarian contribution. Evidently, this will be of great weight in considering Hungary’s future role in Afghanistan, the Minister added

Currently more than 100,000 troops from 50 countries are participating in the operation within the NATO ISAF mission, which NATO launched under a UN Security Council mandate. The Hungarian Defence Forces contribute around 1,000 troops to international peace support operations, of which more than 530 are deployed with eight contingents in Afghanistan. One of these contingents, the HDF Provincial Reconstruction Team (HUN PRT) is going to terminate its activity in the coming days, and the soldiers serving with it will return to Hungary.

(MTI)