Meeting of defence ministers of Croatia and Hungary

In a media statement, Minister Bozinovic said he was extremely pleased with the cooperation of two countries, stressing that the Republic of Hungary, was one of the biggest supporters of the Croatian path to Euro-Atlantic integrations, both in terms of membership in NATO, and about joining the EU. “It is particularly important in this year when Hungary in the first half of the year chair the European Union”, Minister Bozinovic said, and also thanked the Hungarian Government for the support of Croatia during the negotiations on EU accession. Minister Bozinovic commented on the bilateral cooperation between the two countries in the defence sector, emphasizing that the cooperation was extremely high, which proves almost 40 planned joint activities in 2011, which would take place through the implementation of joint agreements. He also thanked the Hungarian counterpart for help in organizing exhibitions of military industry and military equipment which was held in October 2010 in Budapest, which has yielded not only a great result but also gave guidance on how the two countries can cooperate in the defence industry. “Military industries of the two countries established good cooperation, it is on us to further intensify this cooperation in military industry, given that there is a mutual interest of the two countries”, Minister Bozinovic said. In a media statement, Minister Bozinovic also announced that he expected that some of these projects would become more concrete at the show of military equipment and weaponry, which will be held in Split at the end of March this year.
Hungarian Defence Minister Csaba Hende said that Hungary fully supports Croatia on its path to EU membership, as well as in projects of the military industry. “Although the area of bilateral cooperation between the two countries is no an issue, our national interest is to improve and intensify cooperation in defence industry”, Hungarian Minister of Defence said. The Hungarian Minister particularly commented the Hungarian and Croatian cooperation in the ISAF international peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan, describing it as excellent, since Hungarian and Croatian troops have been deployed together on the two locations within the mission.