Posted on 03/10/2003 7:17:31 PM PST by FairOpinion
BUDAPEST, March 10 (AFP) - Hungary may offer 2,000 chemical defense suits in answer to a NATO request to provide military equipment to Turkey in case of war on Iraq, Defense Minister Ferenc Juhasz said Monday.
The suits, complete with gas masks, are "of limited military use but are excellent for civilian purposes," the minister told MTI news agency.
Juhasz said the government would decide on the offer during a session on Wednesday.
The suits, of a total value of some two million euros (2.2 million dollars), would come from stock set aside for civil defense services and will have to be replaced, Juhasz said.
"Effective legislation regulates the defense stocks Hungary must maintain with potential emergencies in mind, so we shall have to buy new suits to replace the ones we would offer," he told MTI.
He added that the country could finance the suits from either the general reserves of the budget or an aid contingency of the foreign ministry.
Until last week, the government had said it would not offer troops, arms or equipment to help defend Turkey.
But Foreign Minister Laszlo Kovacs said on Saturday that the country was still mulling offering some help.
"I think we can offer something for the defense of Turkey," MTI news agency quoted Kovacs as telling a press conference in the southern Hungarian town of Szeged on Saturday.
Kovacs said the defense ministry would on Monday inform the government whether it could offer NATO any weapons for Turkey.
Hungary on February 24 authorized US troops and equipment to transit its territory in order to defend Turkey in case of war against oil-rich Iraq.
The country is also allowing the US army to use its military base at Taszar in the south to train Iraqi dissidents. Washington says the Iraqis will be trained to help US forces liaise with civilians and humanitarian relief agencies in the aftermath of an eventual war.
Contrast this to France, who is totally against us, didn't want to help Turkey, even though the NATO charter requires it.
I say we should boycott France and do more business with Hungary, Romania, Latvia and all the other E. European countries who not only express their support in words, but in deeds.
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