On Wednesday, January 11 Lt.-Gen. Zoltán Orosz, the Deputy Chief of the MoD Defence Staff attended the transfer of authority ceremony of the Hungarian–Romanian–Slovak–Ukrainian TISA Multinational Engineer Battalion. At the event held in Hotel Hadik, Budapest, the Hungarian general transferred the responsibilities of the lead nation role to Lt.-Gen. Dr. Dan Ghica-Radu, the deputy chief of the general staff of the Romanian armed forces.

The ceremony started with giving reports, including the after action review of Exercise Blonde Avalanche 2011 – last year’s largest-scale training program for the TISA Battalion – and the tasks scheduled for 2012.

In what followed, the record of the lead nation role transfer was signed. Both deputy chiefs of staff put their signature on the document, then Lt.-Gen. Zoltán Orosz handed over his Romanian counterpart the plaque of the multinational battalion for this year, which is decorated with the flags of the four nations.

 Prior to the event Gen. Orosz told us that Hungary’s political and military leadership considers it a priority that the Hungarian Defence Forces participate in disaster prevention and consequence management efforts. That was the reason behind setting up the TISA Multinational Engineer Battalion in the first place.

Almost to the day ten years ago, on January 18, 2002 an intergovernmental agreement was signed in Budapest by four countries – Hungary, Romania, Slovakia and the Ukraine –, which facilitates international cooperation in controlling floods in the common catchment area of the River Tisza. Under the terms of the agreement, the maximum manning level of the national module units has been set to 200, so these days the strength of the multinational battalion is 703.

 Stationed in Hajdúhadház, the Hungarian module company has efficiently participated in flood control activities over the recent years. The unit deployed significant capabilities in joining the disaster relief efforts during the record-breaking flood on River Tisa in 2006, the flood inundating the northern region of Borsod in 2010 and the red sludge disaster.

During the EU presidency period, in 2011 Hungary as a lead nation gave priority to the role of the multinational battalion, so the Hungarian Defence Forces mounted a computer-assisted command post exercise (CAX-CPX) coupled with a live exercise (LIVEX) that involved the subunits of the member nations.

The member states are to fill the lead nation position of the battalion in a rotational system based on the English alphabet, so Hungary took over the lead nation responsibilities in 2003, Romania in 2004, Slovakia in 2005 and the Ukraine in 2006, then they recommenced the rotation in 2007. Accordingly, Hungary took over the lead nation role from the Ukraine in February 2011. While in Hungary, after the TOA signature on Wednesday, the Romanian military delegation visited the military port of Újpest, to learn about the equipment and activities of the HDF 1st Honvéd EOD and Warship Regiment.

(Ministry of Defence)