“Budapest and Warsaw agree that Central Europe could become the engine of European growth”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó told Hungarian news agency MTI following negotiations with Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski in Warsaw.
He and his Polish counterpart agreed that the major changes occurring throughout the world as a result of the change in U.S. foreign policy and Brexit necessitate the further tightening of cooperation between the countries of the Visegrád Group (Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary, the V4), Mr. Szijjártó told the press.
The abovementioned changes offer Central Europe the opportunity “to become the engine of Europe growth to an even greater extent” and to become “a stable factor that is extremely attractive to enterprises that are searching for a secure place to invest in the new, modern, digital economic age” including within the global economy, and accordingly even tighter regional economic cooperation is in the interests of the whole of Central Europe, Mr. Szijjártó emphasised.
On the subject of bilateral economic relations, the Minister pointed out: “Poland is Hungary’s sixth most important trade partner and bilateral trade flow increased by a further 7 percent during the first eight months of this year, while Hungarian exports to Poland increased by 13 percent during the same period. Bilateral trade flow is expected to exceed 8 billion euros by the end of the year”.
Mr. Szijjártó also said that he and Mr. Waszczykowski had also discussed how major Hungarian companies such as MOL and Richter could increase their presence on the Polish market.
During the negotiations, he and Mr. Waszczykowski “also reinforced their cooperation with regard to the fact that reforms are needed within the European Union”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said.
Mr. Szijjártó thanked the Polish Foreign Minister for the fact that Poland had this year joined the legal action against the mandatory resettlement quota that Hungary has launched at the European Court of Justice. He assured his negotiating partner that “however the EU rule of law mechanism against Poland develops”, Hungary would “not support any kind of restrictive measure” relating to the case and would in fact “protest loudly and vote against any such initiative”.
The two Ministers signed several bilateral agreements on Tuesday, of which Mr. Szijjártó highlighted the agreement concerning the buildings that are home to the countries’ respective embassies, which, as he explained, “finally put an end to a drawn-out legal dispute”. According to the agreement, the Hungarian Embassy in Warsaw and the Polish Embassy in Budapest will become the property of the Hungarian and Polish State, respectively.
In accordance with another agreement, the Hungarian Embassy in Pristina will also serve as Poland’s visa service representation in Kosovo.
“Hungary is supporting Poland’s bid for non-permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council for the 2018-2019 period”, Mr. Szijjártó confirmed, and thanked Mr. Waszczykowski for Poland’s support of Hungary’s election to the UN Human Rights Council.
On Tuesday, Hungary’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade will be taking part in a summit of V4 and Western Balkan Foreign Ministers in Warsaw. The meeting, to which EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Federica Mogherini has also be invited, will also be attended by the Foreign Ministers of the Western Balkan countries (Albania, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Kosovo) as well as their counterparts from Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Romania, Slovenia and Italy. The main subject of the meeting will be the EU integration of the Balkans, in addition to which the agenda will also include the topics of migration, energy security, hybrid threats and organised crime.