10 February 2015, Budapest
Good Morning, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Allow me to welcome you all, and to extend my warmest greetings in particular to our guests from Georgia. For the information of the Honourable Prime Minister, it is a strange thing that, while in Hungary we naturally call your country “Georgia”, in everyday Hungarian the name “Grúzia” has persisted. The name commonly used back in a very long forty-year period became firmly embedded in the Hungarian people’s consciousness. However, out of respect – and I wish to address this to members of the press – I shall refer to the Prime Minister’s delegation as the delegation from Georgia.
First of all, I would like to say that our talks were guided by mutual respect. We not only respect our guests because they represent a people with a great past and a great history – a past and a history which command the utmost respect not only in Hungary but anywhere in the world; but our respect is also due to being able to welcome to Hungary the representatives of a brave nation. If one looks at the innovations that have been tested in the economic and political systems of countries around the world over the past 15 years, one sees that Georgia is one of the most innovative countries. We, too, always carefully study the policies employed there, regardless of the particular government in office at a given time, regardless of the composition of the country’s administration; we always look upon Georgia as a country that Central Europe should pay very close attention to. We therefore paid this same close attention to the words of the Honourable Prime Minister at our meeting held just now.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
What Hungarians should know about relations between the two countries is that Georgia is Hungary’s second most important trade partner in the South Caucasus region. According to data available today relating to the first ten months of 2014, our bilateral trade expanded by some ten per cent. We have agreed with the Prime Minister that a Hungarian trading house will be opened in the Georgian capital in April this year. Our Eximbank – the Hungarian Export-Import Bank – opened a USD 50 million credit line to support cooperation between Georgian and Hungarian small and medium-sized enterprises, and we have agreed that should this sum be fully used, we will be prepared to extend the line of credit. We greatly appreciate the fact that the Honourable Prime Minister will be speaking at today’s business forum, as we have set up a Hungarian Georgian intergovernmental committee for economic cooperation, the operation of which can already be seen in cooperation between members of the business community.
And finally I would like to share with you a thought on energy security. Hungarians may be less aware of this, Honourable Prime Minister, but now that a succession of attempts to construct gas pipelines bypassing Ukraine have failed and, given that we are now compelled to find new solutions, the significance of your country for Europe has increased enormously; and whatever solutions we may seek, one way or another Georgia will be involved. I would therefore like to inform the Hungarian public that, in the light of the events of recent months, the strategic importance of our guest’s country has increased significantly. Consequently, it is hard to imagine Europe’s energy security without Georgia playing some important role in it – whether in the capacity of energy distributor or energy supplier. As a transit country, Georgia is also of great significance, and we may therefore welcome here the prime minister of a country that is also extremely important to Hungary in terms of our own energy security.
In closing, I would like to add that, for our part, we support Georgia’s Euro-Atlantic integration aspirations, and respect and acknowledge its attempts to maintain its territorial integrity. We support – and in November the Hungarian parliament voted for – the association agreement which Georgia entered into with the European Union, and we urge its implementation. We would like to see a stable Caucasus region, and would therefore propose that the EU develop a customised, country-specific programme for Georgia that is adjusted to the country’s unique features. A cornerstone of this would be the removal of the visa requirement, which will be discussed this year at the EU summit to be held in Riga. We believe that the European Union should grant Georgian citizens visa-free travel rights. This is a logical consequence of the agreement which Georgia signed with the European Union, and which would clearly be equally beneficial to the people of Georgia and the European Union. Therefore, Hungary fully supports a visa waiver for Georgia.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thank you for your attention, and I would like to thank the Honourable Prime Minister for talks which have been both cordial and fruitful.