The bilateral meeting between Italy and Hungary was held yesterday at Palazzo Guidoni, headquarters of Segredifesa. The national delegations were chaired by general of the army corps Luciano Portolano, general secretary of defense and national director of armaments, and byacting national armaments director mr. László Tömböl.
At the opening of the proceedings, General Portolano hoped that the already excellent friendship relations between Italy and Hungary could be further strengthened, above all in consideration of the current international socio-political moment, characterized by changed scenarios and profound geopolitical changes. The secretary general also confirmed the availability of the Italian defence, with the support of the national industrial reality, to provide all the necessary support for the renewal needs of the Hungarian armed forces, exploring possible developments of cooperation in the broadest sense of the term, also through the use of chords Government-to-Government (G2G).
For his part, Mr. László Tömböl highlighted how Hungary is particularly interested in resuming and deepening cooperation with Italy in the defense industries sector, with the aim of relaunching the national industrial base.
The bilateral meeting made it possible to deepen some programs of excellence of the national military industry, with very high technological content, for the satisfaction of the potential Hungarian requirement. In particular, attention has been focused on the attack helicopter sector, with particular interest in the development of the New Exploration and Escort Helicopter AW-249-NEES, of the Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) and Counter-Unmanned Aerial Systems (C-UAS).
Cooperation between the two countries in the field of aerospace, defense and security is governed by the Intergovernmental Agreement signed in Budapest on 28 February 2013 and by the Statement of intent between the minister of defense of the italian republic and the minister of defense of Hungary on the enhancement of bilateral defense co-operation, signed in Budapest on 7 March 2022.
