“The countries of the Visegrád Group (V4) and the United States are natural allies”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said on Thursday in Washington.
At a forum organised by the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA), Mr. Szijjártó stressed: “In the extremely heated and major debates on the future of the European Union it is Central Europe, and within it the Visegrád Group, that represents common sense”, and it is the economic and security policies that are based on this that have resulted in the fact that “we can now state without any exaggeration that Central Europe is the safest region Europe”, and that it is this region that serves as the engine for European economic growth.
“All this is thanks to the rational politics with regard to which the Central European region and the current U.S. administration have very much in common”, he said.
Mr. Szijjártó highlighted the fact that both the United States and the countries of Central Europe are centering on the security of their own country and their own citizens, and are practicing a strongly patriotic economic policy, in addition to which they also agree on important geopolitical issues.
“The current administration of the United States and the countries of Central Europe are all centered around the security of their own country and own citizen, “in contrast to the European Union’s hypocritical policy, which is bringing danger to Europe”, he explained.
“It is a ‘fundamental truth’ for both the American administration and the countries of the Visegrád Group that the duty and responsibility of the state and the government is to guarantee the security of its own country and the safety of its own citizens”, he pointed out.
“Despite pressure from the EU, the Visegrád Group is unified with regard to the fact that illegal immigration is a bad thing, and we must protect our citizens from its effects as determinedly as possible”, the Hungarian Foreign Minister said.
“The countries of Central Europe and the U.S. administration are also very similar with regard to the fact that they are all practicing a strongly patriotic economic policy based on the statement that the President of the United States was the first to make: America comes first”, he continued. “This is a highly liberating statement” after which nobody can question the right of another country to regard its own interests as being of primary importance”, Mr. Szijjártó said. “The countries of Central Europe are lovers of freedom, and had to fight for their freedom in the not too distant past, and accordingly they appreciate the U.S. administration’s standpoint according to which national interests come first”, he noted.
The Foreign Minister also spoke about the fact that the V4 is the most effective and closest alliance within the European Union, and accordingly “the countries of the Visegrád Group have become significantly more important within the international arena”.
“This is also true with relation to the United States, the V4 is one of the American administration’s natural allies in a host of important geopolitical issues, including for example NATO reform: it is clear that NATO’s European pillar must be reinforced, and the countries of Europe must do more in the interests of their own security”, he explained. “For precisely this reason, Hungary is proud of the fact that it is playing an extremely important role in protecting Baltic airspace, the stabilisation of the Western Balkans, creating peace in Afghanistan, and also in the fight against the Islamic State terrorist organisation”, he added.
“The V4 and the United States are also natural allies with relation to their views on sovereignty”, he said. “Changes of dramatic rapidity are going on in the world, and the countries of Central Europe have so far been among the winners of these changes”, Mr. Szijjártó highlighted. “Achieving this did not come free, however, and we often had to decide in favour of rational political decisions that were undoubtedly not in harmony with the international mainstream, in the face of major pressure”, he said.
The Hungarian Foreign Minister said that in his opinion it has, however, been proven by now that the Central European policies were correct, and it is thanks to this that the countries of Central Europe and the members of the V4 are among the winners of these major global political and global economic changes. “This could not have been the case had the V4 failed to maintain its unity, which has continued to exist despite all kinds of pressure”, Mr. Szijjártó declared.
(MTI)
