Senior defence officials of the Visegrad Four (V4) countries discussed their current and future defence cooperation, the group's role in NATO as well as defence budgets at the Globsec international security conference in Bratislava on Friday.

The panel discussion was attended by Czech Defence Minister Martin Stropnicky, his Polish colleague Tomas Siemoniak, Slovak Defence State Secretary Milos Koterec and Hungarian Defence State Secretary Tamás Vargha.

Mr Vargha stressed the importance of the four countries' regional cooperation. He stated that the V4 countries had not been able to make significant progress in defence cooperation until the recent past. But due to a change in the security situation and the economic crisis' unfavourable effects on their national defence budgets these countries have recently enhanced cooperation in the area of defence, Mr Vargha pointed out.

Under Hungary's V4 presidency between July 2013 and June 2014 the Visegrad Four countries have prepared the group's long-term defence cooperation strategy and worked out a common defence planning framework allowing a more efficient development of common military capabilities, he added.

Mr Vargha said the Hungarian Government has decided not to reduce the country's defence spending until 2015 and to annually increase it by 0.1 percent of GDP from 2016 on.

(Ministry of Defence)