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The migration pressure on Europe is increasing due to Brussels’ policies, and those countries that curb illegal immigration should be especially appreciated. Thus financial support to Egypt should be increased, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Budapest on Tuesday.
At a press conference held jointly with his Egyptian counterpart, Sameh Shoukry, Péter Szijjártó stressed that relations between the two countries have always been based on mutual respect, and Hungary has benefited greatly from this in both security and economic terms.
The foreign minister also touched upon the issue of mass illegal immigration in the context of the serious security challenges. He underlined that last year the Hungarian authorities prevented some 270,000 illegal border crossings without any assistance from Brussels.
In practice, Brussels’ migration policy has now turned people smuggling into a thriving business across Europe. And as migration pressures are increasing because of Brussels’ policies, we have to pay special tribute to those countries that are helping to prevent these pressures from increasing,”
he emphasized. Szijjártó stressed that Egypt is just such a country, the most stable bastion of the North African defense line protecting Europe, despite the fact that the situation is further complicated by the internal war in neighboring Sudan and the flood of refugees from there.
We are therefore asking Brussels (…) to increase its financial support to Egypt so that Egypt can cope with the influx of people from Sudan,”
the minister said. “We are also calling on Brussels to provide technical, technological support to Egypt to enable it to secure its borders so that refugees from Sudan cannot cross into Libya, from where there is a direct route to Europe,” he added.
Besides migration, the foreign minister also referred to cooperation in energy, technology, and training, recalling that both countries are building new nuclear power plants, using the same technology and the same contractor.
Featured photo via MTI/Soós Lajos