VisegradPost, “Poland sends new contingent to protect Hungary’s border”, 14 July 2014:

   

Poland, Warsaw – “Poland will be sending another contingent to support Hungary’s border protection system”, Polish Minister of Interior Mariusz Błaszczak announced following a meeting of Visegrád Group (V4) Interior Ministers in Warsaw.

In addition to the hosting Polish Minister, the meeting was also attended by Hungarian Interior Minister Sándor Pintér, Slovakian Minister of Interior Robert Kalinák and Czech Deputy Interior Minister Jiri Novácek.

At the press conference following the meeting, Mr. Pintér said: Hungary turned to its Visegrád partners for assistance “in the interests of the implementation and international enforcement” of its new border protection system, which came into force in the beginning of July. Hungary will not only be receiving support from the V4; it is hoped that Thursday’s visits by the Austrian Minister of Defence and Minister of Interior will also have a similar result, he pointed out. Thanking his Visegrád colleagues for the assistance they have provided to Hungary so far to protect its Schengen borders, Mr. Pintér said “This has helped us allow significantly fewer illegal immigrants to reach the Schengen Area”.

VisigradPost, “For Poland, the NATO summit of July 8 and 9 has been highly positive,” 13 July 2016:

Poland, satisfied with the decisions taken regarding the eastern flank of the Alliance, announced a few weeks before the summit in Warsaw her intention to participate to the defense of the southern flank and in particular the fight against the Islamic Stateby sending in Iraq and in Kuwait 200 men and four F-16 aircraft for observation missions and training of Iraqi units. Warsaw also wants to intensify its military effort to not have to rely on its allies by setting a target to get its investment in the defense from currently less than 2% of GDP to 2% in the short term and to 3 % in the long term. For comparison, Russia, which has an economy worth about four times that of Poland, spends nearly 4.5% of its GDP on its military machine

VisigradPost, “Slovakia will direct NATO efforts in demining in Ukraine” 14 July 2016:

The summit held in Warsaw early July brings the first results: Slovakia will be in charge of a NATO trust fund to be used for the removal of explosives, ammunition and for demining.

According to the Slovak President, over 600 people were killed and 2,000 were wounded in Ukraine since the current conflict erupted as a result of explosions of various obsolete explosives. Slovakia has provided training to dozens of Ukrainian specialists between 2014 and 2015.