Hungary will increase its defense spending gradually to 2 percent of its economic output by 2026 from 0.95 percent now, Defense Minister Istvan Simicsko said Thursday.
Hungary, which joined NATO in 1999, spends less on defense than other eastern European members Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Romania and Bulgaria.
Although military spending among NATO members has increased because of Russia’s annexation of Crimea and the crisis in Ukraine, only Britain, Poland, Greece and Estonia meet the goal of spending 2 percent of gross domestic product on defense.
Trump effect
Top NATO and European military officials have called for higher spending after U.S. President-elect Donald Trump questioned whether Washington should protect allies that do not spend enough on their own defense.
Simicsko told Reuters that Hungary’s annual defense spending would increase by 0.1 percent each year, which means a rise to about 350 billion forints ($1.21 billion) this year.
“By 2026 we will could reach 2 percent (of GDP),” he said.
The minister said Hungary would embark on a defense development program, which would include the procurement of military helicopters.
He said that four of Hungary’s Russian Mi-17 helicopters were being refurbished in Russia and declined to say how many functioning helicopters Budapest had on hand.
Helicopters wanted
Some were deployed to patrol the EU’s Schengen border with Serbia to the south, he said.
“I would not exclude the possibility that a (helicopter) tender would be put out before (2018) elections,” he said, adding that any decision on actual purchases could only be made after the parliamentary elections.
“We have to operate until then, that’s why we made the decision to refurbish some of our Russian helicopters,” he added.
Simicsko declined to say how many and what type of helicopters Hungary would want to purchase, but said that a force of 30 to 40 helicopters could be considered significant for a country the size of Hungary in the region.
“If we buy 10, that would be more than what we have now,” he said.