Working towards even closer cooperation

The air show and defence industry exhibition Aero India is organized biannually in Bengaluru (Bangalore), the capital of the state of Karnataka. The renowned companies present at the exhibition include, among others, Airbus, Boeing, Dassault Aviation, Lockheed Martin, Israel Aerospace Industry, BrahMos Aerospace, SAAB, Rolls Royce, Larsen & Toubro, Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) and Bharat Electronics Ltd.

According to the official press release of the event, Aero India 2023’s focus is on showcasing indigenous equipment, developments, solutions and technologies, as well as forging partnerships with foreign companies, in line with the slogan of the current initiative of the Indian leadership “Make in India. Make for the World”. Speaking at the inauguration of the exhibition on Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi revealed that India wants to raise its annual defence exports threefold, to USD 5 billion from the current USD 1.5 billion in the next two years.

It is also known that Hungary considers India as a strategic partner, and is committed to developing relations with it and deepening the good relationship between the two nations. India is one of the leading Asian investors in Hungary, being at once one of the most significant commercial partners. Beyond the already existing commercial, economic and social relations, our countries are working toward even closer cooperation, mainly in the field of foreign and security policy and also in the human resources development and modernization issues of the armed forces.

In the framework of the exhibition Gábor Gion as representative of the Ministry of Defence met with Minister of State for Defence and for Tourism Ajay Bhatt. He reaffirmed that Hungary has considered as important the foreign policy “Opening to the East since 2010, and maintaining strategic partnerships with India is a part of this policy. At the same time, the Hungarian connection is important to India as well, especially these days when the objective is to jointly safeguard security in global policy.

Finally, the two sides agreed to hold more meetings in the future, especially in the field of defence industry, with the goal of promoting intensive cooperation.

This year, the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between our countries provides a good opportunity – beyond the common celebration – to carry on with the ongoing initiatives and to launch new ones.