Off the wire
• Urgent: Gold up on weaker U.S. dollar  • 1st LD Writethru: UN special envoy announces temporary pause of intra-Syrian talks  • At least 22 mln to be food insecure in E. Africa over El-Nino: UN  • "Genome sequencing lab in suitcase" can monitor epidemic outbreaks in resource-limited area  • UN reviews humanitarian financing for 125 million people in need  • Chinese economy remains major powerhouse for Africa's growth  • Feature: Returned Egyptians recall joyful Chinese Spring Festival  • Russia, Oman sign mutual visa exemption agreement  • Slovak teachers call on special parliamentary session  • British services PMI rises to 55.6 in January  
You are here: 　 Home

Hungarian FM reiterates importance of Hungarian-Polish cooperation

Xinhua, February 4, 2016 Adjust font size:

Cooperation between Hungary and Poland, and joint efforts within the Visegrad Group (Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia), has always been a primary focal point of Hungarian foreign policy and always will be, Hungarian foreign minister said Wednesday.

Peter Szijjarto made the remarks here after meeting with his Polish counterpart Witold Waszczykowski.

Waszczykowski is in Hungary laying the groundwork for a visit by Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo next week.

Szijjarto defended Poland against unrest in the European Union (EU) over decisions made by the new government and demanded the actions of its democratically-elected government be respected.

Szijjarto also called for tighter cooperation within the Visegrad Group, postulating that Central Europe would be the engine of European growth in the upcoming period and that economic achievement and political cooperation would significantly boost the power of the region within Europe.

Hungary and Poland are linked by security, economic, and energy interests, Szijjarto said, adding that Hungary's Eximbank had opened a 492-million-euro (541 million U.S. dollars) line of credit to help Hungarian and Polish businesses in cooperative ventures.

He also noted that the presence of Hungarian energy company Mol on Poland's energy market could enhance economic cooperation between the two countries even further.

He also cited Poland's efforts to help Hungary close its borders to the wave of migrants pushing northward and westward, and took the opportunity to once again voice Hungary's opposition to the EU's proposed quota system in accepting refugees. Hungary has appealed this decision at the European Court of Justice.

On his part, Waszczykowski underlined that Europe needed to deal with real problems, not marginal issues.

He too underlined the friendship between the Polish and Hungarian peoples, the importance of the Visegrad Group, and said that Central Europe had to become a true center between Eastern and Western Europe and be granted equal significance in the EU.

He also noted that the value of trade between Hungary and Poland was 8 billion euros, and called for stronger economic and infrastructural relations.

Speaking on the migration crisis, Waszczykowski called for focusing on the root cause, adding that Europe was not the place where the underlying problems could be solved.

Speaking about Russia, Poland's neighbor, Waszczykowski said his country viewed ties between the two countries as pragmatic ones, since there were some issues that could only be resolved through pragmatic cooperation.

But that did not mean Poland was ready to accept every measure taken by Moscow, he added.

Waszczykowski acknowledged that NATO's eastern border was less well protected than the western one, which he called untenable.

On another topic, both Hungary and Poland supported efforts to keep Britain within the EU, Szijjarto said.

He also said he hoped the Visegrad Group would present a joint position on the proposals to resolve the dispute over welfare benefits for migrants. Endit