Hungary and Serbia boost military cooperation
Defense Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said in Belgrade on Tuesday that Hungary and Serbia have agreed to boost military cooperation and signed an agreement on the 2025 plan.
'It is especially important in today's fast-changing international environment that Serbia and Hungary, two neighbouring countries, conduct frequent high-level consultations to ensure the stability of the region,' Minister Szalay-Bobrovniczky told a joint press conference with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Hungary and Serbia have the strongest bilateral defense and military ties among non-EU or NATO member states, and Hungary is helping to upgrade Serbia's armed forces, he said.
Serbia and Hungary's strategic partnership was expanded to include defense and military cooperation in 2023, and cooperation between the ministries and armed forces is strengthening, he said.
Under the agreement signed on Tuesday, the two countries will organise 79 joint programmes in 2025, including flotilla training, an international exercise for volunteer reservists and marksmanship training, Szalay-Bobrovniczky said.
Hungary is committed 'to [maintaining] the stability and peace of the Western Balkans, and Serbia is key to that.'
Hungary also sticks to its stance that 'the European Union is not whole without the Western Balkans, including Serbia,' he said. 'A credible and meaningful enlargement policy has been our strategic goal for years, and it was one of the priorities of Hungary's presidency of the Council of the EU in 2024.' Budapest also stands by the Dayton Peace Agreement, he added.
Vucic said Serbia's defense ties with Hungary were the strongest among all its neighbours. A comprehensive defense agreement is one of the most important points of the two countries' strategic partnership, he said.
In 1999, during the Balkan wars, 'it was thanks to Prime Minister Viktor Orban that NATO could not launch a land attack against what was then Yugoslavia,' Vucic said. 'A full 26 years later, the two parties now have the opportunity to build extremely close strategic ties, to further deepen cooperation, coming closer to a Hungarian-Serbian military alliance.'
'Serbia can learn a lot from Hungary, and there is interest in certain military equipment,' he said.
Vucic thanked Hungary for standing by Serbia 'in hard times as well as in good ones,' and said Budapest could always count on Serbia's support.
Besides military cooperation, Serbia and Hungary are reliable partners in energy matters, and bilateral trade has been growing steadily year after year, he said.
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