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52 I Central Europe bne June 2022
He argues Nato should have more credible forward deployed forces in the region, underpinned by quick and viable reinforcement.
“Air defence is a particular importance. We invest in air defence; however, it won‘t be sufficient to protect national and allied forces in the conflict. We expect that air policing [will] be transitioned
to air defence,” he points out.
The Estonian defence ministry says that the Russian war in Ukraine and its threats against Nato allies show that
military aggression against Nato “cannot be ruled” out at this point.
“Therefore the current enhanced Forward Presence posture needs to transition to
a Forward Defence posture. This means increasing the allied presence in the Baltic states, developing a divisional- level command structure in each Baltic state and ramping up activities in the air and maritime domains. The main aim is to deny Russia the ability to reach their goals by aggression,” the spokesman says.
“In addition to a Nato division command
structure, we need stronger air defence and maritime posture. What’s most important is a clear command structure, clarity in the mobility of critical capabilities, and pre-positioned equipment.”
The good news for the Balts is that Nato now appears to be moving in this direction, with the June summit set
to agree a new Eastern Flank defence strategy, one which not just involves Sweden and Finland, but which also makes Baltic defence central to the bloc’s thinking.
has already caused a rift between Budapest and its onetime closest ally, Poland, and if Orban goes ahead and vetoes oil sanctions in Brussels this could lead him to be even more isolated and could even cause a fundamental break with the rest of the EU.
Budapest’s decision to oppose EU sanctions on Russian gas imports is just
a question of Hungary’s infrastructure, Foreign Minister Peter Szijarto told CNN’s Richard Quest on his show on April 27.
Hungary receives 85% of its gas supply and 65% of its oil supply from Russia, a reliance that he described as the “physical situation in Central Europe”.
Szijjarto said Hungary would be ready to diversify its gas supplies, if possible, citing the Black Sea offshore gas project in Romania and recalling recent developments on establishing two-
way interconnectors with Hungary’s neighbours.
The Orban government is credited with the completion of strategic natural gas storage facilities with a 1.2bcm capacity in southern Hungary, as well as the recently improved links between the Hungarian and Croatian gas networks, which gives access to other market players through the LNG terminal on the island of Krk, mitigating the impact of Russian energy dependency.
"We have done a lot in order to diver- sify, we have built all the interconnec-
Hungarian PM Viktor Orban met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow just three weeks before the Ukraine war.
Hungary's dependence on Russian energy will make ending those ties very painful
bne IntelliNews
The Hungarian government says it opposes energy sanctions on Russia because of its inevitable dependence on Russian supplies because of geography and the infrastructure that had been built up under Communism. But Viktor Orban’s regime has also deepened those energy links, making Hungary ever more dependent on Moscow.
www.bne.eu
Despite Orban’s close ties with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, Hungary has approved all sanctions against Russia, which also includes a ban on Russian coal imports into the EU. But Budapest has opposed extending sanctions to
oil and gas due to the country’s high dependence on Russian energy.
Hungary’s opposition to energy sanctions