“The countries of the Visegrád Group (the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia, the V4) are performing extremely well in handling the pandemic, which also indicates the importance of deepening Central European cooperation”, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó declared on Tuesday following a video meeting with the Polish Foreign Minister.

In a post on his Facebook page, the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade reported on the fact that he and Jacek Czaputowicz had mutually expressed their solidarity towards each other in the current situation, and had also agreed that cooperation between the two countries must be further reinforced. “V4 cooperation must also be made closer and extended to even more areas so that we are able to act together as often as possible in unexpected situations, and this will also make national responses more efficient”, he highlighted.

Mr. Szijjártó said Budapest and Warsaw have made major efforts to bring home their citizens from many points around the world, for which he expressed his thanks to Polish national airline LOT, which has helped bring 109 Hungarians home so far. He added that the parties wish to maintain this cooperation, because although over 8000 people have been brought home to date, there are still around 900 Hungarian citizens stranded abroad.

He stressed that the two countries are mobilizing major resources to reboot their economies. Mr. Szijjártó said it was good news that Hungary and Poland achieved an extremely high bilateral trade flow of 10.6 billion euros last year, and have further increased the level of trade during the first two months of this year. “Both parties have an interest in the unhindered continuation of trade flow and are doing everything possible to minimise the damage caused to Hungarian-Polish trade and business relations”, he added.

The Minister said the parties had agreed that national solutions are working best during the fight against the coronavirus pandemic, and also with relation to the fact that our “European friends” are applying a double standard in debates concerning the rule of law. “Because while they are still criticising us because the ‘coronavirus act’ is affording the Hungarian government the opportunity to take effective action, some are also trying to prompt the Poles to declare a state of emergency that would enable the postponement of the presidential elections, which is clearly in the interest of the Polish opposition”, he stated. “The Hungarians and the Poles will always be able to count on each other in these hypocritical European debates”, he declared.

Mr. Szijjártó also spoke about the fact that Wednesday’s meeting of V4 foreign ministers will primarily be about the Eastern Partnership, and he and the Polish Foreign Minister had agreed that reinforcing cooperation between the EU and the East is important.

(Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade/MTI)