RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE 19 August 1999
RUSSIA, GERMANY TO MODERNIZE EASTERN EUROPE'S MIG-29S.
Russia's MAPO aircraft manufacturer and the Rosvooruzhenie
state arms-trading company have signed a cooperation
memorandum with Germany's DASA aerospace concern on jointly
modernizing MiG-29 fighter planes serving with the air forces
of Hungary, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, and Slovakia, Interfax
reported on 18 August. Under the agreement, the planes'
service life will be extended to 2015 and operating costs
reduced. A working group is now considering ways in which
Central and East European factories can participate in the
program. The German air force has 24 MiG-29s, which Russia
earlier helped modernize. JC
HUNGARIAN DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS KOSOVA CRISIS PROVES
NEED FOR ARMY REFORM. Janos Szabo told MTI on 18
August that the Kosova crisis "highlighted the fact
that the [Hungarian] army does not have the necessary
capabilities to handle the country's present and
future challenges." He said that a "strategic re-
examination" of the army's needs and capabilities is
now under way and will reflect the "radically altered
circumstances arising from Hungary's NATO membership
and the lessons drawn from how the Kosova crisis was
handled." Szabo said that the purpose of the
examination is to "create an army that can be financed
in the long-term and that reflects the demands of the
times." MS
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RADIO FREE EUROPE/RADIO LIBERTY, PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC
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RFE/RL NEWSLINE 20 August 1999
HUNGARIAN PREMIER SAYS MAGYARS EVERYWHERE ARE 'ONE NATION.'
Viktor Orban, speaking at the 19 August inauguration of the
new Office for Hungarians Beyond Borders, said that his
government "cannot accept anything less than a guarantee that
Hungarians living beyond our borders are granted the full
opportunity to education and cultural fulfillment" in their
mother tongue. Orban said that "all the citizens of Hungary
and the Hungarians beyond its borders are members of a single
and indivisible nation," MTI reported. MS
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