Israeli Deputy Defense Minister Mordechai Gur just completed a six-day official visit here during which cooperation between the two countries, notably in the sphere of military technology, formed the agenda of his meetings with high-level Hungarian officials.
During the visit, which ended Sunday, Gur and Defense Minister Lajos Fur discussed Israel’s offer to help modernize Hungary’s Russian-made military hardware.
Israeli firms have expressed interest in the past in helping modernize Hungary’s fleet of Russian-made MIG-21 and MIG-23 fighter planes.
Senior Hungarian Defense Ministry officials told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency that Hungary’s defense budget, which was curtailed after the Communist regime here ended, prevented the country from buying advanced military technology from Israel.
Gur came to Budapest from Prague, where he visited the 1,000-year-old Jewish Quarter in the Czech capital.
On his last day here, Gur visited the Jewish Community Center and the old Jewish Quarter, where he expressed pleasure at finding that a Jewish community still thrived. There are at least 85,000 Jews living in Hungary.
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