Belgrade and Budapest – a comprehensive military alliance

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic (R) talks with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (L) during their meeting in Belgrade, Serbia.
Photo: EPA-EFE

Belgrade and Budapest are working towards establishing a comprehensive military alliance, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic stated following the signing of a document on Serbian-Hungarian strategic defense cooperation.

President Aleksandar Vucic stated after a meeting with Minister of Defense of Hungary Kristof Szalay-Bobrovniczky that in the region, Serbia has the most developed and intensive cooperation in the field of defense with Hungary, and expressed his belief that an agreement on joint activities will be followed by moving ever closer and in the creation of a military alliance between Serbia and Hungary.

"We aim to forge the closest strategic relations in the field of defense, and we believe that this agreement on joint activities will pave the way for a military alliance or union between Serbia and Hungary," the Serbian leader emphasized.

Aleksandar Vucic said that the two countries' defense ministries intend to hold the largest number of joint events this year compared to previous years. According to the Serbian leader, this will bring Belgrade and Budapest closer to creating a military alliance.

"Of course, the Hungarian side has a say in that, the Hungarian and Serbian parliaments and everyone else," Vucic told a joint news conference after the signing of the Bilateral Military Cooperation Plan between the defense ministries of Serbia and Hungary for 2025. He said that a document was signed today that makes operational and concrete the agreement on strategic cooperation in the field of defense reached in 2023.

The document on strategic defense cooperation, along with a plan for bilateral military partnership for 2025, was signed by Serbian Defense Minister Bratislav Gasic and his Hungarian counterpart, Krisztof Szalay-Bobrovniczky. The plan outlines 79 joint activities, which include helicopter exercises.

Vucic noted that Serbia has the largest number of joint activities with Hungary among all countries. This includes bilateral and multinational military exercises, as well as close military-technical cooperation, which includes purchasing weapons and military equipment from each other.

Vucic's briefing was preceded by the arrival in Belgrade of Hungarian Defense Minister Kristof Szalai-Bobrovnicki and his talks with his Serbian counterpart Bratislav Gasic. Following the meeting, a document was signed specifying the agreement on defense cooperation concluded between Belgrade and Budapest in 2023.

Vucic stressed that “we should not lose sight of the fact that thanks to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his government, we had peace with our northern neighbor back in 1999, when they were under great pressure to allow a land invasion of Serbia, from Hungarian territory.”

"And they did not allow that. Today, 26 years later, we are in a position to build the closest strategic relations in the field of defense and to think and move forward, and we believe that this agreement on joint activities will also have its continuation in moving closer and towards the creation of a military alliance between Serbia and Hungary. Of course, the Hungarian side has a say in that, the Hungarian and Serbian parliaments and everyone else, but our relations are so good, especially considering everything that is happening in Europe and the world," Vucic said.

Earlier, the Chairman of the Serbian Parliament's Committee on Diaspora Affairs Dragan Stanojevic suggested that Slovakia could become the third member of the Serbian-Hungarian military alliance. This alliance can be considered a response to the signing of a trilateral cooperation agreement between Croatia, Albania and the self-proclaimed Kosovo.

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