Meeting of the Defence and Security Committees of the Parliaments of the V4 countries, 27-28. October 2024, Poznan


The Parliament of Poland, which holds the Presidency of the Visegrád Group from 1 July 2024 to 30 June 2025, organised the meeting of the Committees on Security and Defence of the Parliaments of the V4 countries between 27 – 28 October 2024 in Poznań. The event was hosted by Andrzej Grzyb, President of the National Defence Committee of the Polish Sejm, and by Mirosław Różański, President of the National Defence Committee of the Polish Senate. The Hungarian National Assembly was represented on the event by Mónika Bartos, Member of the Committee on Foreign Affairs. From the two chambers of the Czech Parliament the Vice-Chairs of the Committees on Defence were present. There were no members of parliament from Slovakia, which was represented by the Ambassador of Slovakia in Warsaw. During the meeting, the participants discussed three topics, and the program included also a visit to the 31st Tactical Airbase in Poznań-Krzesiny and the laying of flowers at the Monument to the Victims of June 1956 in Poznań.

The meeting was opened by Andrzej Grzyb, President of the National Defence Committee of the Polish Sejm. Welcoming speeches were made by Bogumiła Kaniewska, Rector of Adam Miczkiewicz University, which provided the venue for the meeting, by Agata Sobczyk, Voivode of the Greater Poland Voivodeship and by her deputy, Wojciech Jankowiak. All the participating delegations were given the opportunity to share their opening remarks, in which they all highlighted the importance of Visegrád cooperation. The title of the first item on the agenda was "Building cybersecurity, ICT and cryptology defence capabilities to combat hybrid threats as a key challenge for the Armed Forces ". Colonel Łukasz Brakoniecki, Head of the Cybersecurity Management Branch of the Polish Cyberspace Defence Forces Command gave an introductory presentation on the topic. After that the second agenda item focused on Air Policing missions as an example of solidarity and cooperation in building a regional security system and protecting the integrity of the airspace of NATO Member States. On this topic, the participants heard the presentation of Colonel Sławomir Ostrowski, Commander of 22nd Command and Guidance Centre of Poland. The last item on the agenda was the building of civilian and military resilience against disinformation and manipulation as one of the fundamental conditions for security, which was introduced by Colonel Konrad Korpowski from the General Staff of the Polish Army, former Director of the Government Security Centre.

In connection to the cyber security, Mónika Bartos highlighted the links between cyberspace and disinformation, as well as the challenges and threats posed by artificial intelligence. In the second agenda item, she emphasized the cooperation between the Visegrád countries in the protection of the Slovak and Baltic airspace. On the topic of building civil and military resilience of societies, she stressed the importance of the conscious use of information, furthermore she informed her colleagues about the research conducted by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences which aims to filter out fake news and pseudo-scientific news.

At the end of the meeting a press briefing was held, when the heads of delegation answered the questions of the press.

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