The talks were hosted by the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces General Franciszek GĄGOR, who was joined by the Chief of the General Staff of the Slovak Republic General Lubomir BULĺK, the Chief of Hungarian Defence Staff General Laszlo TÖMBÖL and the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Czech Armed Forces Major General Josef PROKŠ.

During the first day of the meeting in Sopot the V4 CHODs discussed the Prague 2008 meeting conclusions and transformation of military forces during economic crisis. The CHODs underlined the significance of regular annual meetings during which exchanging of experiences takes place in various areas such as: training, defence transformation and cooperation within NATO and the EU. The Czech delegation shared its experience on the military aspects of preparing the EU Council presidency. The CHODs confirmed their support for the Ukrainian Armed Forces in their efforts to closely integrate with the Euro-Atlantic structures. During the discussion on multinational structures cooperation, the CHODs confirmed their intent to form a Visegrad EU Battlegroup on stand-by in 2015.

At the press conference the CHODs introduced four main issues that were brought up during the first day of the meeting. First of all, they summed up the previous (Prague) V4 CHOD meeting conclusions with special attention paid to the training process. The result of these decisions was implementation of the V4 Training Catalogue as an essential element of training the forces to participate in allied operations. In accordance with the armed forces transformation during the economic crisis, great emphasis was put on seeking most effective and successful methods of the armed forces management. Another important subject for the V4 countries was the discussion on military aspects of preparing the Czech Republic to the EU presidency. Finally, cooperation within the multinational project of creating an air transport wing based on C-17 aircraft run to a large extent by the Hungarian Armed Forces is also an example of tightening the regional cooperation.

Announcing Friday’s session, the Chief of the General Staff of the Polish Armed Forces stressed participation of the Ukrainian Armed Forces delegation, which has been attending the V4 CHOD meetings since 2007. Moreover, for the first time, the Chiefs of Defence of the Baltic States have been invited to join subsequent discussions of the V4 CHODs.

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The Visegrad Declaration 1991 signed on 5th February 1991 is the legal basis for Visegrad Group (V4) in the field of military cooperation. The group functioned as a consultation and coordination assembly, mostly at the level of ministers of foreign affairs and national defence. The cooperation has been intensified after the decision on inviting Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary to access talks, which were taken by NATO nations on July 1997 in Madrid. In January 1999 Slovakia joined the Group. Every year, since 2002 ministers of national defence V4 have been meeting to discuss the main issues concerning defence policy of the Alliance and the region and since 2005 also the EU issues. During the meetings at the level of ministers of national defence, which follow similar rules, exchanging experience on military cooperation between Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary takes place. Since 2007 Ukraine has been taking part in the CHOD’s meetings. The next meeting will be held in Hungary in 2010.

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