First Meeting of V4 Defence State Secretaries

The State Secretaries of the Ministries of Defence of the V4 countries met on December 15, 2014 in Bratislava. It was historically the first meeting of a newly established structure within the defence cooperation—the Senior Body.

In line with the document Long Term Vision of the Visegrad Countries on Deepening their Defence Cooperation (download here), the main aim of this format is to provide strategic guidance and recommendations, identify areas of common interest and oversee launching of concrete common projects.

The State Secretaries mostly discussed fulfilling of the Prime Ministers' tasks from their declarations signed in June and December this year, but they touched upon the current development within NATO and the EU as well.

References:

• Long Term Vision of V4 Countries on Deepening their Defence Cooperation [.PDF]; March 14, 2014
  • Framework for an Enhanced V4 Defense Cooperation [.PDF]; March 14, 2014
  • Annex B (Terms of Reference of the V4 Planning Group)
  • Annex C (Standards of Participation...); December 2014
• Budapest Declaration on the New Opening in V4 Defense Cooperation; June 24, 2014
• Joint Statement on the Deepening of V4 Defence Cooperation; December 9, 2014