Hungary and Turkey conclude a special strategic partnership agreement
Negotiations on the creation of a priority strategic partnership agreement between Hungary and Turkey have begun, Péter Szijjártó announced on Tuesday in Budapest. At a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Cavusoglu, the head of the ministry pointed out that Hungary highly values Ankara’s role in dealing with the most important challenges.
He pointed out that Hungary, as a neighbor of Ukraine, is acutely aware of the negative impact of the war, which is why he was interested in peace as soon as possible.
He pointed out that nowadays it takes courage even for someone to talk about peace, and the people involved are portrayed as Putin’s allies and friends of the Russians.
Although the war can only be ended through negotiations, this was proven by Turkey’s successful mediation attempt
he said, referring to the grain export to the agreement reached on its restart. Péter Szijjártó invited Ankara to continue its mediating efforts, because as a result of these the world came closer to the hope of peace.
At the event, he greeted Fidesz representative Attila Tilki, who is a member of the Council of Wise Men operating within the framework of the Organization of Turkic States, the council that created the nomination of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for the Nobel Peace Prize.
The essence of the initiative is for President Erdogan to receive the Nobel Peace Prize, given that the only successful mediation attempt during the ongoing war in Ukraine is attributed to the President of Turkey
he emphasized.
After that, the minister reported that Turkey plays a prominent role in the management of the European energy supply crisis, after the Turkish Current the only east-west gas pipeline operating at full capacity on the continent.
as a result – as he emphasized – the energy security of the future depends on diversification, and the most realistic scenario for this in the medium term is the increased involving Azeri natural gas extraction means, for which Turkey is also needed for geographical reasons. Intercompany negotiations on transit have already begun.
We are already negotiating for Hungarian companies to have increased access to the Turkish natural gas pipeline system in order to be able to transport extracted natural gas from Azerbaijan to Hungary
said the minister.
After that, he also touched on illegal migration, which cannot be managed by Europe without Turkey.
If Turkey does not curb illegal migration, we here in Europe face an unmanageable challenge
– and asked the international community to create conditions enabling the return of Syrian refugees.
The Hungarian-Turkish cooperation is of great help in dealing with the three main security challenges, and in recognition of its importance, it was decided to raise the strategic partnership between the two countries by one level.
Péter Szijjártó confirmed that he supports the government NATO accession of Sweden and Finlandand its ratification will be submitted to the Parliament in February.
He called it unacceptable that after recently a Koran was burned at a demonstration in Stockholm, and he described the Swedish response as nonsense, according to which burning the holy book of another faith is part of freedom of speech.