During the meeting held at the Carmelite Monastery earlier today, Viktor Orbán emphasised that although a ceasefire and peace would be paramount, intense fighting erupted in the Russo-Ukrainian war on Wednesday night. The security of Hungary remains the top priority of the government, the Prime Minister stressed.
‘Historically, wars are coups d’états in the interior of the political process. It’s usually invisible to outsiders and it usually doesn’t respond to outside activity. The war in Ukraine started with people who are non-historians reading the history of Russia, the way a non-historian is looking for something relevant today. So, whenever they think that they have some historical information, it’s always misinformation because it gets taken out of context.’
‘As a volunteer reserve captain, I have seen the internal state of the armed forces from the bottom up, and as a minister, from the top down. From both perspectives, it is clear that a profound organisational culture change is needed,’ Defence Minister Szalay-Bobrovniczky noted in a recent interview.
Minister of Defence Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky drew attention to the fundamental change in the security situation in Europe and stressed that the military must demonstrate appropriate deterrence to ensure the safety of the Hungarian people. He emphasised that defence is something that concerns all Hungarians, and reiterated that the Hungarian Defence Forces welcome young people who want to join in the armed defence of the homeland.
21 May was designated National Defence Day in 1992 because it was on this day that Hungarian soldiers recaptured the Buda Castle after a three-week siege at the end of the spring campaign in 1849.
The Hungarian force development programme must not slow down: cooperation between Rheinmetall and the Hungarian state will continue uninterrupted, Viktor Orbán nailed down.
‘The huge potential of the Hungarian defence industry can unfold at the best possible time, as one of the recurring themes of EU defence ministerial discussions is that stocks are being depleted and there is insufficient capacity for after-market production.’
Regarding the war in Hungary’s neighbourhood, Hungary’s Minister of Defence reiterated that the country’s position has been clear from the beginning: to stay out of the war and pursue Hungary’s national interests.
As the debate unfolds, the divides between the followers of pro-Eastern Pan-Slavism and the supporters of Western orientation are becoming deeper and deeper.
On the night of 8 August, the Baltic Air Defence Readiness Unit of the Hungarian Defence Forces was called on its their first live Quick Reaction Alert (QRA) scramble, after an unidentified aircraft not willing to engage in radio communications with air traffic control entered the intranational air space over the Baltic Sea. The aircraft was identified as Russian, and was successfully captured by Hungarian fighter jets.