Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó accompanied a shipment of one hundred thousand PPE masks and five thousand sets of medical protective clothing to Moldova during his lightning visit to Chisinau on Tuesday. The Minister reported on the Hungarian aid at a joint press conference with his Moldovan counterpart Oleg Ţulea, which was broadcast live on Mr. Szijjártó’s Facebook page.

“Moldova has turned to Hungary for assistance in combating the coronavirus pandemic through two channels: on a bilateral, inter-governmental basis, and within the framework of NATO. In view of the fact that Hungary has purchased large quantities of protective equipment from China and has also established its own production capacity, it is now in a situation to be able to also help Moldova”, the Minister explained.

“The Prime Ministers of the two countries recently signed a strategic partnership agreement, and Hungary is taking this strategic partnership and friendship seriously”, Mr. Szijjártó emphasised. “Hungary is a committed supporter of the European Union’s Eastern Partnership Program. It regards it as important that the EU should have allies in the East, and in Budapest’s opinion the countries of the Eastern partnership need to receive a suitable level of funding from the countries of the EU”, he explained.

“There is currently a particular and rapid need for this assistance. According to information from Moldova, a large proportion of infected persons are healthcare workers”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said. “As a representative of a Christian democratic government, I would like to tell you that we highly appreciate the activities of Moldova’s social democratic government with relation to enforcing national interests. We also believe that to us, Hungary comes first, and we appreciate countries that place their own national interests at the forefront”, he declared.

“We call on the European Commission to refrain from applying political discrimination with relation to Moldova, and to immediately transfer the promised financial assistance, the 70 million remaining out of the promised 100 million euros, to the country, because if ever, now is when there is a very great need for it. And we also call on the European Commission to immediately transfer the 100 million euros in assistance being provided because of the pandemic”, Mr. Szijjártó said.

The Minister noted that now, during the coronavirus pandemic, an extremely good level of cooperation has developed between Hungary and Moldova with relation to the transit traffic of goods and people, in addition to which two Hungarian companies, OTP and Richter, are the market leaders in Moldova in two very important areas of the economy: the banking sector and the pharmaceuticals industry. “We therefore also have a selfish interest in Moldova being as successful as possible and being able to reboot its economy”, he declared.

The Moldovan Foreign Minister also thanked Hungary for helping thousands of Moldovan citizens, who had been stranded abroad because of the travel restrictions introduced to combat the coronavirus pandemic, to return home.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade / MTI)