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Following consultations with Romanian Deputy Prime Minister Barna Tánczos, Foreign Affairs Minister Péter Szijjártó emphasized that strong cooperation with Romania is in Hungary’s absolute national interest.
“This is also in our economic interest, as Romania is one of the most important export markets for the Hungarian economy, and last year we managed to break our export record,” he emphasized, adding that good cooperation is also critical for the situation of Hungarians in Transylvania and Szeklerland.
It is very helpful in this cooperation that the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania is part of the government in Bucharest,”
he emphasized.
Péter Szijjártó stated that developing relations is in the interest of both sides in several strategic areas, such as energy supply, especially since Europe is constantly teetering on the brink of an energy crisis due to a series of mistakes made by Brussels.
“The European Commission wants as little energy as possible to come to Europe from external sources, which will of course make energy more expensive. But we have a fair energy cooperation agreement with Romania, and our goal is to make Hungarian-Romanian energy cooperation even closer in the coming period, so that we can take into account the gas reserves discovered in Romania in the coming years when securing Hungary’s natural gas supply,” he said.
The Minister explained that the necessary infrastructure developments had been carried out, so that Hungary is now capable of receiving 2.6 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Romania annually.
“And we are continuing to develop transport links in the same way, as there are Hungarian communities living on the other side of the border and Romanian communities living here on our side, in Hungary,” he noted.
“They want to be able to cross the border freely to maintain family and friendship ties. By helping the Romanians join the Schengen area, we have made ten new border crossings available to the public,” he added.
“We are now working on building another bridge together, we want to rebuild the Szent Gellért bridge at Cenadul Unguresc (Magyarcsanád), we want to build another border crossing point, and we have also started planning the railway line between Szeged (in the southern part of Hungary) and Timișoara (Temesvár), thus we want to create new transport links to support those living along the border and the Hungarian and Romanian economies,” he said.
Via MTI; Featured photo: Facebook/Péter Szijjártó