The Expert Initiative Captured the Attention of Visegrad Ministers

Online, March 12, 2012 (Newswire.com) - Earlier this week, the region's security experts, who will soon present the report on the possibilities of Visegrad defence cooperation, informed the ministers of foreign affairs about the present status of the initiative. In order to harmonize the needs and possibilities of individual countries, the DAV4 expert group has met with several senior officials of the ministries of foreign affairs of the Visegrad countries and of the Czech Ministry of Defence. This week also Czech Defence Minister Alexander Vondra hosted the meeting of the experts.

The topic of regional defence cooperation is in the present time particularly apt seeing that the defence budgets have been significantly diminished in recent years. The budget cuts in defence have limited the ability of countries to perform the defence tasks individually. As the Prague meetings have shown, the ambitious programs of cooperation, in particular the coordination of defence planning or joint acquisition projects can increase efficiency in defence spending and help maintain military capabilities.

The Visegrad ministers expect the expert group will come up with concrete proposals to serve as the basis for the forthcoming negotiations as well as the long-term vision of regional cooperation.

The DAV4 project, in the frame of which the expert group of twelve high-profile experts from the V4 countries will provide the ministries with concrete recommendations, was initiated by the Slovak Atlantic Commission in cooperation with its Visegrad partners (Jagello 2000 from the Czech Republic, International Centre for Democratic Transition from Hungary and Polish Institute of International Affairs). The project is being implemented with the financial support of the International Visegrad Fund.
"Our intention is to develop a broad quality debate on defence cooperation, that's why we consult the initiative at the level of foreign ministers," explains the member of the DAV4 expert group and the President of the Slovak Atlantic Commission, Rastislav KáÄer. "Their positive approach is a good news for the future cooperation, and signal that we are on the right track," said Rastislav KáÄer.

Their initial recommendations will be presented to the wider professional community in April this year at the international foreign policy and security forum GLOBSEC. "The project is set so that its results could be presented at the NATO Chicago Summit. One week after the GLOBSEC Security Forum the ministerial meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Defence of V4 countries will be held. Thus, the conclusions of the DAV4 experts' study could serve as an inspiration for the joint ministerial statement," proclaimed Rastislav KáÄer.

"At a meeting in Prague, we also agreed that the upcoming stages of the project will be consulted with the defence planners and the Czech V4 Presidency," concluded Rastislav KáÄer.

The project was launched last autumn at the Smart Security conference in Bratislava, which focused on international defence cooperation. Since then, the DAV4 experts have attended many working meetings in the Visegrad capitals, as well as consultations in the Nordic countries and the NATO Headquarters in Brussels.

DAV4 (Defence Austerity: A New Paradigm for Defence and Security Cooperation in the Visegrad Region) is an ambitious project of the Slovak Atlantic Commission and its Visegrad partners, which aims to strengthen joint defence initiatives of the region. Partners of the project are: Jagello 2000 from Czech Republic, International Centre for Democratic Transition from Hungary and Polish Institute of International Affairs.

The initiative is an answer to the current trend of defence austerity. The persisting economic crisis and rising costs on defence equipment make small countries unable to maintain usable armed forces. That is also the case of the CE region. Apart from the political and geopolitical consequences this development could ultimately weaken the capabilities of the armed forces or further increase costs. Therefore, smaller states have to pave the way towards security integration in regional groupings by sharing these costs. In light of defence austerity, cooperation and integration is no longer just an option, but a necessity. This policy is strongly supported by NATO and the EU.

The core of the DAV4 project is an expert group of 12 high-profile experts from V4 countries. Their role is to develop a comprehensive analysis of the limits and opportunities of Visegrad security cooperation. The resulting document that is based upon their research will set out a vision for the next 10 - 15 years in the area of defence and will also serve as a roadmap for the respective governments to help them lead and intensify defence partnership. DAV4 runs under the auspices of Mikuláš Dzurinda, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic and with the support of the International Visegrad Fund.

DAV4 International Expert Group:
Czech Republic:
Jiří Schneider, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs;
Gen. (Ret.) Jiří Šedivý, Former Chief of Defence Staff;
Jan Jireš, Director, Centre of Transatlantic Relations, CEVRO Institut;

Hungary:
Amb. István Gyarmati, President, Centre for Democracy Public Foundation;
Gen. (Ret.) László Tömböl, Former Chief of Defence Staff;
Attila Demkó, Head of Defence Planning, Ministry of Defence;

Poland:
Dr. Marcin Zaborowski, Director, Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM);
Marcin Terlikowski, Research Fellow, PISM;
Gareth Chapell, Research Fellow, PISM;

Slovakia:
Amb. Rastislav KáÄer, President, Slovak Atlantic Commission;
Tomáš Valášek, Director of Foreign Policy and Defence, Centre for European Reform;
Jozef Bátora, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences of the Comenius University in Bratislava;