Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto, in an interview with Izvestia, spoke about the country's refusal to deploy NATO troops on its territory.
According to him, the forces of the North Atlantic Alliance are present in the country, but this is the Hungarian army.
“And she is in proper shape to protect the country, according to the current situation. So we do not need external forces on our land,” the minister said.
He refuted information about the alleged deployment of American and British military personnel in the state.
At the same time, Szijjarto pointed out that Hungary, being a member of NATO, supports cooperation with some other members of the alliance, including the UK and the US. The countries have agreements on training missions, an agreement on mutual exchange within the framework of rotation.
“Previously, there were NATO [other countries] troops in Hungary, who trained with our army. This is fine. But there will be nothing else that goes beyond this normal, routine cooperation,” the head of the foreign ministry emphasized.
Earlier, Hungarian Defense Minister Tibor Benke said there was no need to deploy NATO forces in the country.
Prior to this, Peter Szijjártó said that Budapest had received a request from the United States to station additional troops on Hungarian territory.
The Telegraph wrote that Britain and the United States may deploy additional forces in Eastern Europe amid growing tensions around Ukraine. According to the publication, they want to transfer military personnel to Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary, “similar to the advanced combat groups that are currently deployed in the Baltic countries and Poland.”
bbabo.Net