The new national military strategy is an important means of renewing the Hungarian Defence Forces – said Minister of Defence Csaba Hende on Thursday, March 7 at a conference held in Budapest. The opening event of the “National Military Strategy Conference Series” announced by the Hungarian Atlantic Council took place at the campus of the National University of Public Service (NUPS) on Hungária Street.

In his opening presentation, Csaba Hende recalled that several significant changes had occurred in Hungary and the international environment since the endorsement of the previous document in 2009, which called for the formulation of a new military strategy.

According to the Minister, the most important one among these changes was the shift of approach in national defence and the government’s national defence policy. In the light of this, they have laid down the guidelines and directions for the capability development of the Hungarian Defence Forces and identified the medium- and long-term goals. They have set the long-term strategic goal of establishing a military with adequate capabilities and balanced structure, which can be deployed to carry out tasks both in defensive and international operations and is supplemented with a well-functioning volunteer reserve system.

Minister Hende also noted that at the time of the change of government, there had been 18 volunteer reservists on paper, but actually there had been none at all. Today the Hungarian Defence Forces have 4400 well-trained and sworn-in reservists who can deploy any time.

Speaking about the reasons for developing the new strategy, Minister Hende also pointed out that the austerity measures – which were taken in consequence of the economic crisis starting from the autumn of 2008 – affected the defence budget as well, and this alone prevented the implementation of the plans formulated in the previous strategy. He added that a number of further changes had occurred in the global security environment as well, for example the realignment of Great Powers and the new types of security challenges like cyber security coming to the fore.

The Minister also drew attention to the fact that the changes of exceptional dynamics occurring in the global security environment have become unpredictable in the long run. As he said, this not only places higher value on the role of the military but “makes the sustainment of a credible military force outright indispensable”. It follows that the development of the armed forces is an essential requirement. He told his audience that the Hungarian Defence Forces are at once characterized by obsolete as well as modern military equipment and also by excellent personnel with experience in international operations.

The Minister also noted that Hungary’s national defence is based on the national resources and allied cooperation. It is indispensable to develop the national armed forces so that Hungarian Defence Forces are able to fulfill their commitments arising from various global and regional cooperation programs, including those assumed in the European Union and with the NATO membership. Following the gradual downsizing in the last 20-plus years, the armed forces must be strengthened systematically and gradually. We still have a very long way to go – the Minister noted.

He pointed out that the experience gained so far had shown that the government of Hungary not only fulfilled but in fact over-fulfilled its budgetary guarantees. Previously they undertook not to decrease the nominal amount of the defence budget until 2015, but already in this year an extra HUF seven billion has been allocated for defence spending. 
Minister Hende stated that – contrary to some reports – the governmental sequestration of certain sums in the MoD budget was out of the question. The Minister said that he himself had decided on setting up internal precautionary savings in reserve. These sums, however, have not been drawn away at all, as they will be spent in full on national defence, he said. He also stated that the government had undertaken to increase the defence budget by an annual 0.1 per cent of the GDP from 2016 to 2023. Assuming an increasing GDP, this rise also includes certain development funds. Apart from this, the development of the Hungarian Defence Forces will not be completed by 2023, but at last they have set out on the road of stabilization and progress.

In his presentation the Minister also noted that the recognition of the Hungarian Defence Forces’ performance in international missions significantly contributes to increasing Hungary’s ability to assert its interests. He also pointed to the results of a NATO survey according to which Hungary is ranked first regarding the troop level of units deployed abroad in proportion to the total troop strength of deployable land forces.   

Minister Hende stated that the Hungarian Defence Forces “are one of the most streamlined militaries” in NATO, since the proportion of leaders is only eight per cent. At the same time, the Minister noted that they were planning to take further measures in the near future to reduce bureaucracy within the Hungarian Defence Forces.

(Ministry of Defence)