This year’s Spring Session of the Conference of National Armaments Directors was held in the NATO Headquarters in Brussels, on 29 March, where our country was represented by Mr Gábor Márki, Deputy State Secretary MOD Hungary in his capacity of National Armaments Director (NAD).

This spring time meeting of leaders responsible for NATO armaments co-operation was built around the theme of Smart Defence. This project was launched by the NATO Secretary General in 2010 in order to give a solution for budgetary problems caused by economic crisis. It contains initiatives for multinational capability developments, the harmonisation of determinations of priorities between NATO and nations; it somehow tries to balance the Trans-atlantic capability differences and supports the harmonisation of national defence planning.

In his remarks Mr Márki emphasised the significance of the regional cooperation within the Alliance and brought the opportunities of the Hungarian industry to audience’s notice which is presented by the HADIK Plan in the area of the defence industry.

During the conference the Deputy State Secretary had bilateral discussions with his fellow Czech and Polish NADs, with Mrs Wendy Gilmour the Deputy State Secretary of Canadian Ministry of Defence and had office calls with the leaders of the two new agencies are established during the reform of the NATO structure, Mr Koenraad Gijsbergs, GM of NATO Communications and Information Systems Agency and with Mr Mike Lyden, GM of NATO Support Agency. One of the major meetings was with Lt. Gen. Claudio Debertolis, Defence Secretary of State and NAD of the Italian MoD concerning bilateral co-operation in the field of armaments.

Last June, at the 3rd Italian - Hungarian Bi-lateral NADs Meeting, the national armaments directors defined the possible areas of collaboration, where real and feasible co-operation can be achieved among responsible organisations and defence industrial players of the Parties based on mutual benefit. In the framework of above-decisions capability demonstrations also were decided. As the first event on 20-21 March 2012 a battle dress uniform demonstration was held by the Italian Aero Secur company with the participations of experts from the Office of Armaments and Quartermaster HUN MoD and the Logistic Directorate of the Defence Staff, HUN MoD.

During the forthcoming weeks some prominent representatives of the Italian defence industry like IVECO and Augusta Westland will visit to Hungary.

During the bi-lateral discussions held in Brussels the date of the next Hungarian- Italian NAD Meeting was also fixed. By invitation of Mr Gábor Márki, Lt. Gen. Claudio Debertolis will visit to Hungary on 22-24 May 2012. Joint bi-lateral defence R&T co-operation, further exploitation of armaments co-operation and the evaluation of last years’ achievements are planned to be on the meeting agenda.

(Ministry of Defence)