The strategic partnership with Romania is very useful in terms of avoiding economic recession, creating energy security and managing the flow of immigrants, so Hungary is interested in preserving it, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said after a reception in Budapest on Tuesday. on his Romanian colleague, reports Magyar Hirlap, quoted by Rador.

According to the press release published by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade of Hungary, Peter Szijártó, at a press conference held together with his Romanian counterpart Bohdan Aurescu, recalled that exactly 20 years ago, the strategic partnership agreement was signed and its preservation continues. the interests of Romania, Hungary and national communities living on the territory of another.

“There are always enemies, there are always those who undermine the situation and who make noise to create the impression that they are bigger than us. But the truth is that the current governments of the two countries have a clear goal, simple to understand and obvious to everyone, and as for the strategic partnership, we will keep it simply because it is beneficial for the two countries and the two peoples,” the foreign minister emphasized. affairs of Hungary.

“The Government of Hungary considers the national communities of both countries as a resource for bilateral relations. The proof of this is the fact that the budgetary support of the Romanian national minority in Hungary has increased six times since 2010, and the support of the Orthodox Church has increased seven times,” said Peter Szijarto, who emphasized that this strategic partnership is special. useful for the successful management of the three most important challenges of our time – the economic situation, energy supply and migration.

Peter Sijarto: “The strategic partnership signed with Romania helps us in these three important issues”

The first area is the economy, given that the European Union is headed for recession, and an important weapon in preventing this is the fact that the volume of bilateral trade between Romania and Hungary last year reached approximately ten billion euros, thus setting a record, and an increase of 29 % was also registered this year.

The Hungarian official recalled that Romania is the third most important export market of the Hungarian economy, where several important Hungarian companies are constantly increasing their presence, such as Mol, which already has 245 gas stations, OTP, which currently has 97 bank branches, and Richter, which has more than 600 employees

Regarding energy security, Peter Cijarto noted that Romania plays an important role in the diversification of natural gas purchases, which is facilitated by the expansion of the interconnector capacity between the two countries from 1.75 billion cubic meters to 2.5 billion cubic meters per year. The head of Hungarian diplomacy also specified that a four-way agreement will be signed in the near future, as a result of which Hungary will be able to import green electricity from Azerbaijan via Georgia and Romania.

According to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Hungary, the third area is migration management, and in this sense it is extremely important that Romania does well in the field of border protection and that bilateral cooperation is effective. Hungary has so far prevented 250,000 attempts to illegally cross the country’s southern border, and if there was also pressure from Romania, the authorities would not be able to focus on the southern border, emphasized Peter Sijarto, who added:

“These are three very important challenges facing us today: avoiding an economic recession, creating energy security and keeping migrants out of the country. In these three important issues, the strategic partnership signed with Romania helps us, and therefore we are interested in preserving it.”

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