Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó emphasised the importance of cooperation between Hungary’s Hajdú Bihar County and Bihar County in Romania, as well as of the participation of Hungarians at Romanian local government elections in Nagyvárad (Oradea) on Friday.

Previously, the Hungarian Foreign Minister officially opened the new Nagykereki-Bors II motorway border crossing point linking Hungary’s M4 motorway with a five-kilometre stretch of the Romanian A3 motorway together with his Romanian counterpart Bogdan Aurescu and Romanian Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Communication Lucian Bode, and held a meeting in Oradea with the leaders of the Bihar County chapter of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania (DAHR). Following the meeting, Mr. Szijjártó emphasised that new development opportunities will be opening thanks to the new motorway link connecting Budapest and Oradea, and Debrecen and Oradea.

“One of our important targets is to establish an electric railway link between Debrecen and Oradea as soon as possible”, he emphasised. “The related feasibility study has already been prepared in Debrecen. We are ready to provide Hungarian government funding towards this project, and will be recommending to the Romanian government that we also make use of the funding offered by the European Union for this purpose”, he added. With relation to the coronavirus epidemic, the Foreign Minister noted that the borders have been closed so that restrictive measures in the interests of keeping the virus at bay do not have to be introduced in the interior of the country. “Romania is the only one of our seven neighbours with relation to which all operating border crossing points have been kept open”, he added. “It was at the request of the DAHR that these border crossing points have remained open throughout. And in fact, given the current crisis, this situation and state of affairs according to which instead of being reduced, the number of border crossing points has in fact increased, is unique. We have now opened the twelfth border crossing point along the border between Hungary and Romania”, the Minister stated.

With relation to the agreement concluded with the DAHR, Mr. Szijjártó said that during the next phase of the Transylvanian Economic Development Program, Hungary will be concentrating on the Partium region. He added that seven thousand applications have received funding to date within the framework of the Program, with the utilisation of 70 billion forints (EUR 194 million) in Hungarian government funding. “One hundred and thirty billion forints (EUR 360.5 million) in investment has been realised as a result”, he pointed out. He added that the Ministry is now awaiting tender applications from small- and medium-sized enterprises from the Partium region within the fields of agriculture and tourism, as well as industry, including the processing industry. Mr. Szijjártó said he and President of the Bihar County Chapter of the Democratic Alliance of Hungarians in Romania Attila Cseke had agreed that in the interests of enabling young Hungarians to study in Hungarian schools, Hungary will be providing financial resources to enable the realisation of plans on the part of the local Hungarian community and the Reformed Church to purchase a school, and will be providing funding towards the construction of a residential dormitory for Hungarian students.
The Foreign Minister asked Hungarians living in Oradea and Bihar County to take part in the Romanian local government elections, in view of the fact that the elections concern their futures and their lives. “It would be good if the ratio of the Hungarian population and the political representation and strength of the Hungarian minority were to also be in equilibrium with each other here. I respectfully ask the Hungarians to participate in the elections and to support the DAHR. It is important that at the elections we support the largest Hungarian political organisation with the greatest chance of winning, because by doing so we will have a chance of having a stronger political representation here in Oradea, in Bihar County, and throughout Romania”,

Mr. Szijjártó stated. “I am of course sticking to my fundamental political principle, according to which we do not interfere in the internal politics of other countries, and this is precisely why I stress that I am urging the Hungarians to take part in the elections. I believe this may also coincide with Romanian political expectations, and clearly Romanian politics did also not mean the fact that Victor Ponta made a speech at a large MSZP (Hungarian Socialist Party) rally just prior to the parliamentary elections to represent interference in Hungarian internal politics, and so I believe that from this perspective we have nothing to be ashamed of”, the Minister underlined.
On Friday, Péter Szijjártó received the A Kezdet (“The Beginning”) award from the DAHR, with which the Romanian-Hungarian organisation has recognised people who facilitate the prosperity of Transylvanian Hungarians since it was founded in 1989. “Mr. Szijjártó received the award in view of Hungary’s education and economic development projects, and because he is doing much for Transylvanian Hungarians and has always assisted the work of the DAHR”, the organisation wrote in its explanatory statement.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)