Defence Minister Csaba Hende called the new National Military Strategy and important milestone. The Minister spoke at a press conference, following a five-party consultation in Budapest on 21 September.

According to Minister Csaba Hende, the renewal of the strategy was necessary, since the previous document did not reckon with the very severe and lasting consequences of the global economic crisis, which have constrained the options for planning the defence budget as well.

Minister Hende said that the strategic goals set out in the new document include the stabilization of the system and the launch of sustainable development process. To achieve these goals, the national armed forces will be reinforced with further effectively deployable capabilities and complemented with a well-functioning system of volunteer reserve, he added.

The Minister pointed out that the unpredictability of long-term events adds further significance to the role of the military, and makes its development necessary. He said that the current state of the Hungarian Defence Forces presents a mixed picture: they have constrained financial options and obsolete military equipment, which are running out, but there are more and more soldiers with international experience.

Therefore, “the creation of a modern military force with flexibly and effectively deployable capabilities, a balanced structure and a complementary well-functioning system of volunteer reserve is an ambitious yet real long-term goal”, the Minister stressed. To achieve all this, in the medium term we need to preserve the capabilities of the Hungarian Defence Forces and launch them on a sustainable course of development – he added.

Minister Csaba Hende reminded that considering the economic realities, the Government recently committed itself in a decree to maintaining the nominal value of the defence budget until 2016 so that the Hungarian Defence Forces can fulfill their statutory and other international obligations. After that, the Government will increase the defence budget by 0.1% of the GDP per year, so it will reach 1.39% of the GDP by 2022, the Minister added.

The strategy is part of the national security strategy, which the Government endorsed this spring, the Minister said. The military strategy is available on the homepage of the Ministry, where anyone can read it and comment on it until November. After that, it will be submitted to the Defence and Law Enforcement Committee of the Parliament and then the government can endorse it by a decree.

(Ministry of Defence)