On 2 June 2016, Deputy State Secretary Kristóf Altusz received in his office Deputy State Secretary for EU Affairs David Brozina from the Slovenian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The aim of the bilateral consultation was to track the implementation of the tasks determined at the Hungarian-Slovenian government summit on 22 January 2016 and to discuss current foreign policy issues.
At the meeting the parties welcomed the fact that the implementation of the tasks determined at the government summit is moving forward smoothly and at a good pace, thanks to which several bilateral working groups will begin work during the second half of the year in important fields such as agriculture and tourism. Mr. Altusz expressed Hungary’s hope that a breakthrough would soon be achieved within the field of energy and that the natural gas interconnectors would soon be constructed between Héviz and Cirkovce and along the Nagykanizsa-Tornyiszentmiklós-Lendava route, both of which will contribute to the energy security of the Central-European region.
Mr. Altusz told the press that, as members of both the EU and NATO, Hungary and Slovenia are committed to fighting terrorism and reducing migration pressure on Europe. In their view, the earliest possible full implementation of the agreement between the European Union and Turkey is important to the handling of the crisis, but is not in itself sufficient to provide a solution. The protection of external borders must continue to be our primary task and the Schengen 2.0 plan put forward by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is a realistic alternative to the steps taken by the EU so far.
During his stay in Budapest, Deputy State Secretary Brozina also paid a courtesy visit to Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade László Szabó, with whom he primarily discussed possibilities for infrastructure cooperation.