Off the wire
• Xinhua Insight: Coordinated momentum needed for area surrounding capital  • Egypt revolution anniversary death toll rises to 23  • China's yuan falls to lowest point in 7 months  • Roundup: Singapore stocks end lower following Greece vote results  • U.S. drone kills 3 al-Qaida militants in Yemen  • China, Turkey vow cooperation on counterterrorism  • Chinese vice president meets former European Commission president  • Authorities say lottery opening cancellation due to technical reasons  • Turkey seeks to accelerate Turkish-US process of training Syrian rebels  • FBI sponsors Swedish interrogation methods research: report  
You are here: 　 Home

Hungary backs Turkey's EU membership

Xinhua, January 26, 2015 Adjust font size:

Hungary supports Turkey for the membership of the European Union (EU), visiting Hungarian Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto said here on Monday.

"I would like to stress that we look to Turkey as an important partner of the EU and Hungary. We support all kinds of negotiations and talks between Turkey and the EU," Szijjarto said during his joint press conference in the Turkish capital Ankara with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu.

Stating that the EU has lost significant part of its competitiveness in the past years, Szijjarto said "we think that in order to regain competitiveness, we have to work together very closely with other countries and regions which are emerging rapidly and produce significant economic growth."

For his part, Cavusoglu thanked the Hungarian government for its "unconditional" support for Turkey's membership of the EU.

Turkey and Hungary are working to boost trade volume to five billion U.S. dollars and are examining new energy policies, said Cavusoglu.

The EU started with Turkey its accession talks in 2005, while negotiations have been making slow progress primarily due to the opposition from member states like France, Germany and Cyprus. Endit