V4 and Ukraine Chiefs of Staff Meet in Debrecen

The military leaders participating in the meeting of the chiefs of staff of the Visegrád Group (V4) reviewed the topical issues of cooperation between national armies on Tuesday in Debrecen, the commander of the Hungarian Defense Forces (MH) said after the meeting.

Lieutenant General Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi told journalists that the Ukrainian Chief of General Staff, who had previously indicated his participation but could not travel to Debrecen due to the war situation, had also been invited to the meeting. The Polish Chief of General Staff was also absent.

At the meeting, the Czech, Slovak and Hungarian military leaders reviewed, among other things, the situation created by the Russian-Ukrainian war and the tasks arising from the deployment of the European Union Battlegroup next year and they discussed the training plans of the V4 armies.

The national armies are open to both joint training and operational cooperation, the commander said, noting that the chiefs of staff confirmed that military cooperation in the Visegrád format is a value that should be preserved.

The Lieutenant General recalled that cyber defense cooperation started in 2011, during the Hungarian EU Presidency. According to him, this theater of war will become one of the most important in the future.

He said that they would like to strengthen cooperation in this area as they did in the land theater, adding that they would assess who has what capabilities in cyber defense and how they could use each other's experience in training.

Responding to a question, Romulusz Ruszin-Szendi also said that they had reviewed the issues related to the planned deployment of forces to NATO's eastern borders. A final decision on this will be taken at the NATO summit in Madrid, but they already know what forces will be deployed on the Alliance's eastern borders.