“Hungary donated protective healthcare equipment to North Macedonia on Monday to enable the Western Balkan country to combat the pandemic being caused by the new strain of the coronavirus as effectively as possible”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said in Skopje.

“Hungary has contributed one hundred thousand face masks and fifty thousand pieces of protective clothing to North Macedonia’s efforts to protect against the pandemic”, he added. The Minister highlighted the fact that Budapest is now able to assist other countries because it has purchased a mask production line from China, and as a result will soon begin the mass production of health masks. He added that aeroplanes are continuously flying between major Chinese cities and Budapest, and bringing the equipment needed to combat the pandemic to Hungary.

“Hungary is practicing responsible neighbourhood policy, within the framework of which we are providing assistance of this nature to Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, and now North Macedonia”, Mr. Szijjártó emphasised. “If these countries become weakened in both a literal and figurative sense, then their defensive capacities will also become weaker, and if major illegal migration pressure arrives, of which there is unfortunately a good chance, then these countries will not be able to withstand it and will be unable to stop the migration pressure, and it is in Hungary’s interests for the line of effective defence against migration pressure to be drawn as far south as possible”, he pointed out.

In addition, Mr. Szijjártó congratulated North Macedonia on having become a full member of NATO last week. “We have struggled hard to achieve this and have worked a lot and cooperated well to achieve this”, he emphasised. He also congratulated North Macedonia on the fact that Skopje will soon be able to begin accession negotiations with the European Union. “We regard this as a major North Macedonian success as well as a major Hungarian success, in view of the fact the EU Commissioner for Enlargement is Hungarian, and what we have been able to achieve for many years has now finally happened (…); we think it should have occurred much earlier”, he explained.
The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade said Budapest is urging the European Commission to establish the negotiation framework by May at the latest, and for accession negotiations to commence by June at the latest in practice. “We live next door, and we know exactly how important it is for there to be peace, tranquillity and stability in the Western Balkans, and these decisions will all take us closer to that goal”, he emphasised.
“Even in the shadow of the coronavirus pandemic, we should not forget that we are facing a special challenge in the form of mass, illegal migration; the situation on the Turkish-Greek border remains difficult, migration pressure is still present, and this year alone North Macedonia’s border security forces have foiled over 5600 attempts to illegally cross the border”, the Minister warned.

Mr. Szijjártó also stated that Hungary is proud of the 30 Hungarian police officers who are currently serving along the North Macedonian border. As he explained, a total of 1383 Hungarian police officers have served at various points along North Macedonia’s southern border to date. “North Macedonia can continue to count on the assistance of Hungarian police”, the Minister promised.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)