On March 5, an expert group of the DAV4 project informed the ministers of foreign affairs and Czech Defence Minister Alexander Vondra about the present status of the initiative at an extended V4 Foreign Ministerial Meeting held in Prague, in the framework of the Czech Presidency of the Visegrád Cooperation.

Defence Austerity: A New Paradigm for Defence and Security Cooperation in the Visegrad Region (DAV4) is an ambitious project of the Slovak Atlantic Commission and its Visegrad partners, the ICDT, the Polish Institute of International Affairs and the Jagello 2000 from the Czech Republic, launched last autumn at the Smart Security conference in Bratislava. It aims to strengthen joint defence initiatives of the region building upon the fact that the budget cuts in defence have limited the ability of countries to perform the defence tasks individually but the coordination of defence planning or joint acquisition projects can increase efficiency in defence spending and help maintain military capabilities.

The core of the DAV4 project is an expert group of 12 high-profile experts from V4 countries. Their role is to develop a comprehensive analysis of the limits and opportunities of the Visegrad security cooperation. The resulting document that is based upon their research will set out a vision for the next 10-15 years in the area of defence and will also serve as a roadmap for the respective governments to help them lead and intensify defence partnership. DAV4 runs under the auspices of Mikuláš Dzurinda, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Slovak Republic and with the support of the International Visegrad Fund.

DAV4 International Expert Group:
Hungary:
Amb. István Gyarmati, President, Centre for Democracy Public Foundation;
Gen. (Ret.) László Tömböl, Former Chief of Defence Staff;
Attila Demkó, Head of Defence Planning, Ministry of Defence

Slovakia:
Amb. Rastislav Káčer, President, Slovak Atlantic Commission;
Tomáš Valášek, Director of Foreign Policy and Defence, Centre for European Reform;
Jozef Bátora, Associate Professor at the Faculty of Social and Economic Sciences of the Comenius University in Bratislava

Czech Republic:
Jiří Schneider, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs;
Gen. (Ret.) Jiří Šedivý, Former Chief of Defence Staff;
Jan Jireš, Director, Centre of Transatlantic Relations, CEVRO Institut

Poland:
Dr. Marcin Zaborowski, Director, Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM);
Marcin Terlikowski, Research Fellow, PISM;
Gareth Chapell, Research Fellow, PISM

13 March 2012