Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó criticised his Romanian counterpart’s statements made on Saturday evening describing the closure of the borders as “an autistic and unacceptable act” as they violate the spirit of the European Union.

According to the communication forwarded to the Hungarian News Agency MTI, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade responded as follows: “we would expect more modesty of the Foreign Minister of the prosecuted Romanian Prime Minister”. Mr Szijjártó added: Bogdan Aurescu has no grounds whatsoever to insult Hungary, and the Hungarian people.

“We are a more than a thousand-year-old state which has been compelled to protect not only its own borders but also those of Europe more than once during the course of its history. This will be the case in this instance as well, whether the Romanian foreign minister likes it or not”, he stated.

According to the communication, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade summoned the Ambassador of Romania to Budapest for Monday.

Mr Szijjártó announced on Tuesday that the Government decided on the preparation of the construction of a fence on the Hungarian-Romanian border over a “reasonable distance” from the Hungarian-Serbian-Romanian triple border.

(Prime Minister's Office/MTI)