At the press conference, Katalin Novák announced a proposal to double the amount of the Visegrad Fund.Continue reading
Hungary is committed to the cooperation of the Visegrad countries (Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Slovakia) and supports the accession of the Western Balkan countries to the European Union, Defense Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said in Prague on Friday.
“Our talks have shown that even if there are momentary differences of opinion between us, we agree on the important issues,” Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky told a press conference with Czech Defense Minister Jana Černochová.
We have confirmed the need to enhance and continue V4 cooperation in the field of defense policy,”
said Jana Černochová, presenting the eight-point joint declaration adopted by the four Visegrad defense ministers at their meeting in Prague. In the document, the group condemned Russia’s attack on Ukraine and described as unacceptable the terrorist actions of the Palestinian radical organization Hamas against Israel.
Jana Černochová and Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky. Photo: honvedelem.hu
The two-day meeting of the Czech, Polish, Hungarian and Slovak defense ministers was convened by Jana Černochová, head of the Czech defense ministry, to mark the current Czech presidency of the V4. The V4 was joined on the second day of the meeting by representatives of the Central European Defense Cooperation (CEDC) and the Western Balkans.
Hungary took over the presidency of the CEDC from the Czech Republic on the occasion of the meeting. Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said that the security of Central Europe is inseparable from the security of the Western Balkans, and
the Hungarian CEDC Presidency program will therefore place great emphasis on further broadening the high-level dialogue and practical cooperation between the two groups of countries and on supporting the European integration of the Western Balkan countries.
“Hungary believes that the stability of the region can only be achieved through the European integration of all countries in the region, and therefore we strongly support the advancement of the integration process,” the Minister underlined.
The stability of the Western Balkans is extremely important for us because it affects the security of Europe, especially Central Europe,”
Jana Černochová also pointed out.
On the Russian-Ukrainian military conflict, Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said: Hungary’s position on this issue remains unchanged. Since the beginning of the conflict, Hungary has been in favor of peace, ceasefire and negotiations, he emphasized. In view of this, the European Union should also rethink its strategy towards Ukraine, the Hungarian Defense Minister concluded.
Via MTI, Featured image: Facebook/Szalay-Bobrovniczky Kristóf