Both countries were severely affected by the earthquakes and the aftershocks in southern Turkey and northern Syria.Continue reading
On Thursday, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is in Ankara, the capital of Turkey, attending the summit of the Organization of Turkic States, Bertalan Havasi, the prime minister’s press chief, told MTI.
The leaders of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, and Hungary are holding an extraordinary summit on Thursday at the initiative of Azeri President Ilham Aliyev.
The event’s main topic is the handling of the February earthquake in Turkey and Syria and the humanitarian consequences.
“It is important for the voice of peace to compete with the voice of war, and it is important to make it clear that the global majority wants peace,” Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said in his speech at the summit. He stressed that unfortunately, Europe is suffering from a “war psychosis,” with the continent drifting into war day by day.
Orbán thanked the leaders of the Turkic states for strengthening the voice of peace. He also thanked Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, whom he said, had so far been able to mediate successfully between the fighting parties, and called on him to continue his efforts in the future. He said that for Hungary, the most important thing was to save human lives, and that is why he advocated for a ceasefire and peace talks as soon as possible.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán speaking at the summit. Sitting beside him is Kubanychbek Omuraliev, Secretary-General of the Organization of Turkic States. Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher
Before the summit, the Hungarian Prime Minister held talks with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev on Thursday morning. At the meeting, the parties were pleased to note that the friendship between the two countries has now been institutionalized and that the implementation of the agreements concluded earlier is proceeding smoothly.
They welcomed the fact that leading Hungarian bank OTP is now also active in the Uzbek banking system, which paves the way for a much broader Hungarian-Uzbek economic cooperation.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán (L) and Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Photo: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher
Both parties said it was also important to start direct scheduled air services between Budapest and Tashkent as soon as possible. The war in Ukraine and the sanctions crisis were also discussed. It was said that we are living in difficult and dangerous times, which are seriously affecting both states, and that the global realignments make it all the more urgent to establish a ceasefire and peace. This urgency is also present in Hungary’s and Uzbekistan’s cooperation, and it would be good if the political and economic rapprochement between Europe and Central Asia could be accelerated in parallel.
The last summit of the Organization of Turkic States took place in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in November. Among the topics then were the war in Ukraine, the energy crisis, and illegal migration. Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said that Hungary saw the Organization of Turkic States as a forum for peace in the war in Ukraine. He also expressed his special thanks to Turkey, a member state of the Organization of Turkic States, for its successful mediation efforts in averting the food crisis, among other things, stressing that such a crisis would trigger another wave of mass migration, which would directly affect Hungary.
Featured photo via MTI/Miniszterelnöki Sajtóiroda/Benko Vivien Cher