Viktor Orbán’s statement at the press conference held after his meeting with Turkish prime minister Ahmet Davutoğlu on 24 February 2015 in Budapest
Good afternoon, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me to cordially greet the Prime Minister and the delegation from Turkey. At any meeting between prime ministers, history is inevitably a topic of conversation, as history constitutes the basis of any cooperation today. But history is not discussed at such length with representatives of any other country as it is when we meet our Turkish friends. On these occasions, we feel the nearness of legend. We are both familiar with the notion that we are the offspring of the great Attila. We talk about it also because the paintings on the walls of our Parliament remind us that we fought one another in heroic conflicts. We recall history because I am able to receive the Honourable Prime Minister in a square graced with the statues of Rákóczi and Kossuth: two Hungarian heroes and freedom fighters who both fled to Turkey to seek refuge. And then, through the weave of history, through meetings and talks of the past, we reach the present day; here we can see that, while we differ significantly in size, we are both proud and sovereign states.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
As regards today, we have concluded a number of specific agreements, and I shall discuss these shortly. But these agreements were bound and forged together by our shared position that in the future we would not like to see increased tensions in Eurasia. We are interested in putting an end to the mentality which always forces us to consider the question of East or West, the pressure to decide in favour of one or the other, and we are interested in having the opportunity to finally say: East and West, West and East, and to create cooperation on a scale in which both Europe and Asia may find their places on the basis of mutual advantage.
And now let me inform you of the most important results of our talks. First of all, we established that we are delivering well on the goal set at our last meeting with President Erdoğan: namely, the goal that Turkish-Hungarian trade should reach USD 5 billion. In 2014 Hungarian exports to Turkey broke their all-time record and reached USD 2 billion. We agreed to further improve this result until we reach the trade target of USD 5 billion. We agreed that the Hungarian Eximbank will open a representation in Istanbul. We opened a credit line worth USD 170 million for small and medium-sized enterprises. We set up a USD 50 million investment fund with USD 25 million from each party. We agreed that our businesses will help one another in cooperation in third countries’ markets. We were pleased to acknowledge that the first tangible result of this effort is already in place, as we have joint oil production operations in Russia and in the Black Sea region, and we would like to extend these cooperation schemes to other countries as well. We thanked the Honourable Prime Minister and the Government of Turkey for making it possible for Hungarians to travel to Turkey without a visa, and in exchange for this, we awarded to nationals of Turkey the most favourable visa assessment procedure allowable under EU law. We confirmed that 768 Turkish students study in universities in Hungary today. This means success for our programme which includes our providing scholarship grants to 150 Turkish students. It is also important that the two metropolises of Budapest and Istanbul agreed to launch a water management pilot programme in Istanbul which allows us to combine renowned Turkish water expertise with Hungary’s accumulated knowledge of water management – which is also highly respected in Europe.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
These were the agreements we reached. In summary, I would like to say that we have had long and successful negotiations. I wish to thank the Ministers of the Turkish Government for the cooperation they have shown over the past year. I am glad to accept the invitation of the Prime Minister of Turkey to the next high-level meeting, to be held in Turkey within a year.
Thank you very much once again, Mr Prime Minister, for being here.