“Germany’s political leaders also acknowledge the importance of border protection, and acknowledge Hungary’s performance, irrespective of which political side they belong to”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said following talks in Stuttgart on Friday.

Evaluating his political negotiations in the capital of the German state of Baden-Württemberg, the Minister said that today, German political leaders “talk about Hungary’s border protection measures in a positive tone and acknowledge their need and justification for existing”, irrespective of their position on the “political palette”.

Mr. Szijjártó held meetings with leaders of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), as well as with high-ranking officials from the liberal FDP and Green parties. With relation to the latter, the Minister highlighted in a telephone statement to Hungarian news agency MTI: “the opposite side of the palette” also confirmed that “they are aware of the fact that Hungary has not only protected itself as a result of its border protection measures, but also Europe, and within it Western Europe and Germany too”.

“We may still be in dispute over certain aspects of illegal migration, but we are in full agreement with regard to the fundamental question that protecting Europe’s external borders is extremely important”, the Minister said.

Mr. Szijjártó added that “joint thinking” had begun between leading German politicians and the Hungarian Government on how “Europe’s lines of defence” might be pushed as far south as possible, and how we might come to an agreement with African and Middle Eastern countries that are currently still transit countries, but which with EU support could become capable of stopping illegal migration at their borders.

All this indicates that “we are in agreement concerning the fact that we need to continuously work on pushing European lines of defence as far south as possible”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

In Baden-Württemberg, which is under the leadership of the Greens-CDU coalition, the Minister held talks with, amongst others, Minister heading the Prime Minister’s Office Klaus-Peter Murawski (Greens), Minister of Justice and EU Affairs Guido Wolf (CDU), and leader of the state parliament’s (Landtag’s) liberal group Hans-Ulrich Rülke. He will also be meeting with the leader of the CDU’s and its Bavarian sister party’s, the CSU’s joint parliamentary (Budestag) group leader, Volker Kauder.

During his one-day visit to Baden-Württemberg, Mr. Szijjártó will be giving a speech in Tuttlingen at the inauguration of medical instruments manufacturer Binder’s new plant, and held talks with the leaders of the state’s largest companies in Stuttgart. On the subject of his economy-related talks, the Minister highlighted the fact that Baden-Württemberg is Hungary’s second most important economic partner among Germany’s states, with companies such as Daimler, Bosch and many others providing jobs for tens of thousands of Hungarians.

“This is one of the reasons why we are searching together for the answers to the challenges posed by the new global economic age, which began with digital transformation”, he added highlighting the fact that “the German flagships of the transition to a digital economy” all have significant Hungarian capacities, which they would like to continue to expand in future.

This means that with regard to the digital switchover “the success of Hungary and Germany are mutually dependent”, the Minister said.

(MTI)