The USA is to deliver medium-range missiles of the Amraam type to Hungary
Photo: STEVE HELBER / APHungary has signed its largest arms deal to date with the USA. This was announced by US Ambassador David Cornstein. According to this, Hungary wants to buy rockets worth around one billion US dollars (850 million euros) from the USA.
As reported by the Hungarian news agency MTI, Cornstein and the Hungarian Defense Minister Tibor Benko signed a letter of intent to purchase medium-range AMRAAM missiles from the US manufacturer Raytheon for the Hungarian Air Force. According to Cornstein, this will enable the former Soviet republic to modernize its air defense and replace systems from the communist era.
Relations between the US and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban are not the closest, although Orban is considered a great supporter of US President Donald Trump. For example, when US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was on a visit to Eastern Europe last week, he skipped Budapest. The visits mainly focused on the stationing of US troops and the Chinese and Russian influence in the region.
Orban also maintains close relationships with Moscow and Beijing - to the displeasure of NATO partner USA. Orban, however, calls his foreign policy "pragmatic" and signed a deal with China to build an express train line. Despite protests from the USA, he also involved the Chinese technology group Huawei in the development of the 5G cellular network.
In terms of defense spending, Orban complied with Trump's demands and increased the share of arms spending in gross domestic product from 0.95 percent in 2013 to 1.21 percent last year.
Icon: The mirrorhba / AFP