“The European Union should sign a new agreement with Ankara in the interests of having Turkey curb migration on its own border”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Tuesday in Ankara at a press conference following a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu.

“Brussels had previously promised Turkey 6 billion euros, but there is a dispute concerning how much of this sum the EU has paid out”, Mr. Szijjártó reminded the press. The Minister called on Brussels to quickly resolve this issue with Ankara, and on the European Commission to pay what it promised. Referring to the coronavirus pandemic, Mr. Szijjártó pointed out: “Until now, waves of migration have represented a security and cultural risk, but they now also bear with them a major health risk”. “Turkey is currently caring for over four million migrants, and there are hundreds of thousands more living on the other side of the Turkish-Syrian border. In view of the fact that the coronavirus epidemic could easily give rise to new waves of migration, the maintaining of the migration agreement is vital to the EU”, he stated. As an example, he cited Libya, which is currently serving as a “green corridor” for illegal immigrants. “We agreed that the Libyan situation must be stabilised, which also requires cooperation between Brussels and Ankara”, he stated.

“The future of the European Union is to a great extent determined by how cooperation between Brussels and Ankara develops in the upcoming period”, Hungary’s chief diplomat said. “Hungary continues to call for open and honest dialogue with and about Turkey, based on mutual respect; Brussels must finally put hypocrisy and duplicity behind it”, Mr. Szijjártó said. “It would be good if the representatives of all European Union member states were to say the same thing when the representative of the Turkish government is in the room, than when he isn’t”, he highlighted. “For instance, in private the representatives of certain member states make it extremely clear that they do not support the possibility of Turkey acquiring European Union membership”, he added. “On 13 July, the council of EU foreign ministers will also be placing the question of future cooperation onto its agenda”, he indicated.

Mr. Szijjártó also spoke about the fact that the global pandemic has also created a new situation in the EU’s economic environment, and accordingly it would be a good thing if Brussels were to also succeed in cooperating as closely as possible with Ankara within the field of the economy. “Hungary’s position is that there should be as few barriers of a customs and bureaucratic nature as possible, and accordingly it is calling for the establishment of a free trade agreement between the European Union and Turkey”, he stated. He also announced that in the interests of increasing opportunities for Hungarian enterprises on the Turkish market, a one-hundred-million-dollar credit line has been opened at Hungary’s EximBank.

The Minister also reported on the fact that Turkey’s role in the security of Hungary’s natural gas supply will be increasing significantly in future. “The Turkish and Serbian stretches of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline have been constructed, the Bulgarian stretch is under construction, and by October of next year Hungary will also be constructing the pipeline that will connect Hungary’s national gas pipeline system to the Serbian pipeline, thus enabling an annual six billion cubic metres of natural gas to be transported to Hungary”, he explained. “It is also in Hungary’s interests for a physical connection to the natural gas pipeline running through Turkey and transporting natural gas from the vicinity of the Caspian Sea to also be realised by 2023 at the latest”, he added. “We have also concluded a nuclear energy agreement that includes closely linked training, engineering and technical elements”, he indicated.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu spoke about the fact that Hungary, as it has always done, continues to be a firm supporter of Turkey within the field of EU relations. Mr. Çavuşoğlu thanked Mr. Szijjártó for openly bringing up the double standards applied by the European Union on all possible platforms. “The EU must review why it has performed badly during the period of the coronavirus epidemic, and must be more honest and transparent towards Turkey”, he underlined.

With relation to the pandemic, the Turkish Foreign Minister also spoke about the fact that Turkey and Hungary have shown particular solidarity towards each other during this period. Hungary handled the other party as a priority with relation to the export of pharmaceuticals, which Turkey behaved similarly with relation to the export of textiles used for the production of PPE face masks. “Friends are recognised in times of trouble”, Mr. Çavuşoğlu said, quoting the proverb in Hungarian. In closing, the head of Turkey’s diplomatic corps also announced that Turkish Airlines, which is partly owned by the Turkish state, will be relaunching its direct air passenger services to Budapest on 15 July. In addition to Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, Mr. Szijjártó also met with Energy Minister Fatih Dönmez, Minister of Trade Ruhsar Pekcan, and Industry Minister Mustafa Varank.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade / MTI)