A promising relationship between the Visegrad cooperation and the Mashrek region

Abstract

The relationship between the European Union (focus on the V4 countries – Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia and Hungary) and Israel will be examined in regard to the most relevant economic and defense policy and military indicators. The paper is focusing on elaborating the political and economic relationship between the EU-V4 countries and Israel. According to empirical studies, it is necessary for the EU and Israel to work on several fields of expertise together, as the potential crisis like migration, terrorism, drug trafficking, etc. can be solved or at least pushed back only in a framework of close cooperation. The aim of this article is to present the potential for cooperation between the V4 countries and Israel, as the next waves of international migration will be coming from the Sahel region. My hypothesis is that there is a strong economic bond between V4 and the Mashrek region and besides this connection, there is a regional (Visegrad Group) growing of military and defense expenditure. The research methodology is to examine the import and export value growth between V4 countries and the Mashrek region, as well the defense and military expenditures through the databases of the World Bank and OECD.