The principle of joint financing should be applied to the NATO response force (NRF), Hungary’s Defence Minister Imre Szekeres said on Friday.
The response force is central to the organisation’s future development, said Szekeres, who is attending a two-day meeting of NATO defence ministers in Krakow.
The NRF will only work if operations are jointly financed, he told MTI by phone
“The current practice under which the cost of participation in NRF is always paid only by the countries involved is unjust and in effect limiting,” he said.
The principle of sharing the costs of NRF between all NATO countries has been endorsed even by Germany’s Defence Minister, who otherwise generally opposed joint financing, he added.
NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and military leaders on Friday presented their reports on NATO’s transformation and plans to improve its efficiency, Szekeres noted.
