EU leaders reconfirmed their commitment to the EU membership of the region's countries.Continue reading
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán received Serbian Foreign Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ivica Dačić at the Carmelite Monastery, Bertalan Havasi, the prime minister’s press chief told MTI on Tuesday. The Serbian politician is visiting Hungary at the invitation of Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó.
Details of the meeting between the two politicians are not yet known, however, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó held a press conference with his Serbian counterpart earlier in the day. At the press conference, Szijjártó stressed the shared fate of Hungary and Serbia, pointing out that few other countries in Europe are facing the two severe security challenges of the Ukrainian war and illegal immigration, to the same extent.
Because of our neighborhood and geographical proximity, the security effects of war and the economic and energy security effects of sanctions directly affect both of us,” he said, adding that the two sides are also directly affected by the increasing migratory pressure on the Western Balkan route.
Szijjártó also said that both sides greatly benefit from bilateral cooperation, as shown by the fact that Hungarian-Serbian trade turnover increased by 75 percent last year, setting a new record. As an example, he said that the “guarantee of Hungary’s energy security” now lies in Serbia, as the TurkStream is the only gas pipeline on the continent currently operating at 100 percent capacity in the east-west direction.
He stressed that last year, 4.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas entered Hungary via Serbia, which is close to half of the total domestic consumption, while 438 million cubic meters were transported in the other direction. He added that
Hungary is ready to implement new infrastructure investments to ensure security of oil supply to Serbia, and the parties will double the electricity interconnection capacity between the two countries within five years.
In response to a journalist’s question on the Serbian-Kosovo conflict, Szijjártó said that Hungary is interested in a peaceful solution and a compromise through dialogue, which is why it had previously assumed the leadership of the NATO peacekeeping operation in Kosovo (KFOR). He said that the success of this search for compromise could be jeopardized if various European formations were to admit Kosovo prematurely, and that the government would therefore vote against Kosovo’s admission to the Council of Europe.
Featured photo via MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Fischer Zoltán