Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó officially opened a consulate in Wroclaw, Poland’s third largest service centre, on Thursday.

The Minister promised that we will not have to wait another five years for the opening of the next Hungarian representation in Poland, because Budapest will be establishing new ones next year in Szczecin and Gdansk with the authorisation of the Polish Government.

“Through the opening of these representations, we would like to make it clear that we are attributing increasing significance to our relations with Poland”, the Minister declared.

He said the task of the consulate in Wroclaw will be to develop economic, trade, tourism and cultural relations rapidly and in large strides. “Last year, Polish-Hungarian trade flow broke all previous records, reaching 10.2 billion euros. Poland has become Hungary’s fourth largest trade partner, and both Lower Silesia and Wroclaw have played a determining role in this”, he said.

He explained that an important argument in favour of the opening of the representation in Wroclaw was that some 300 thousand enterprises have been registered in the city, many of which are young, creative start-ups. “Other important arguments were the wonderful university structure operating here, the increasingly high research & development potential, and the fact that as a new, major service centre, Wroclaw is attracting construction industry investment projects”, he said. “Two large Hungarian construction industry companies are already participating in these investment projects, and airline Wizzair has become one of the most important partners of Wroclaw Airport”, he pointed out.

“Not only do we highly appreciate the city’s present and future, but also its rich history. We know full well how important a role it has played in Polish history, and we are proud of the fact that Wroclaw also has links to Hungary”, Mr. Szijjártó declared.

According to the Minister, the Poles and Hungarians are two nations that have always been able to count on each other, and in fact have fundamentally always only been able to count on each other. “Two nations that have fought hard for their freedom and against the communists. Two nations that respect their history, their religious and cultural heritage, and insist on preserving these. Two countries for which preserving their national identity cannot be an issue. Two countries that participate in debates on the future of Europe as allies, that would like to create a strong Europe of strong nations, that have an interest in the continued survival of a Christian Europe, that are preserving what they have built over the past thousand years”, Mr. Szijjártó declared.

“Of course, in the meantime we, the Hungarians and the Poles, are also two Central European nations. We belong to a Central Europe that will be the engine of European growth in the upcoming years. We belong to a Central Europe in which political, economic and security decisions are determined by common sense. We are in Central Europe, where nations have preserved their identities, and where we have made it clear that only those can enter to whom we allow entry, and that only we can decide who we wish to live with. We are two Central European nations that see supporting families as the guarantor of the future”, he declared.

“Central Europe’s strength lies in solidarity. We, who are members of the Visegrád Group, know full well that we are members of the European Union’s closest and most effective alliance. In recent years we have achieved things together that we would definitely not have been able to achieve alone. We have represented our positions successfully on a host of occasions in Brussels, and sometimes also in opposition to Brussels. We have all made it clear that we are Poland and Hungary, and we will not become immigrant countries”, Mr. Szijjártó declared.

(MTI/kormany.hu)