Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó held talks on assuring the unrestricted flow of goods and border crossing opportunities for commuters on Tuesday.

In a statement to Hungarian news agency MTI, the Minister said: “Here in Central Europe, we live in close interdependency, and this is particularly true when we are faced with difficult situations and major challenges”. “Close cooperation with neighbouring countries is also required with relation to protecting against the coronavirus pandemic, in view of that fact that, in addition to protecting people’s health, assuring the continuous supply of goods is also an important task”, he explained. “This is not possible without close cooperation with neighbours, since large quantities of goods cross national borders, assuring the continuous supply of both Hungarian citizens and the citizens of neighbouring countries”, he added.

Mr. Szijjártó stressed that for this reason on Tuesday he had held video conferences with the Serbian Minister of European Integration and the Slovenian Foreign Minister. “We came to an agreement with both parties concerning the fact that we will be maintaining unrestricted freight transport despite the fact that Serbia has introduced extraordinary measures”, he stated. “We succeeded in coming to an agreement with relation to the fact that we will be maintaining the unrestricted flow of goods at all three of the border crossing points currently open along the Hungarian-Serbian border, thus contributing to the continuous supply of the Hungarian and Serbian people”, the Minister stated.

The Foreign Minister also reported on the fact that he and his Slovenian colleague had agreed that they will be cooperating to provide border crossing opportunities for commuters, similarly to the cooperation already realised with Slovakia, Romania, Austria and Croatia. “From now on, commuters will be able to use two further border crossing points: they will also be able to cross the border at Kétvölgy and Bajánsenye for the purposes of work or cultivating land on the other side of the border”, he explained. “People living on both sides of the border in the Mura and Rába regions have requested this in view of the fact that relations between their communities are extremely close”, Mr. Szijjártó noted.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)