Budapest to organize Visegrád Four-Turkic Council summit in 2022!

Hungary is initiating a high level summit of the leaders of the Turkic Council and the Visegrad Group (V4) in Budapest in the first half of 2022, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said at the summit of the Turkic Council in Istanbul on Friday.

Addressing the summit, Orbán noted that Hungary is holding the presidency of the Visegrad Group it forms with the Czech Republic, Poland and Slovakia until July 1 next year. The prime minister also touched on the shared historical and cultural heritage of the Hungarian and Turkic peoples, saying Hungarians were proud of that heritage.

As regards Hungary’s previous commitments to the Turkic Council, Orbán said Hungary had elevated its ties with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to a strategic partnership and had opened an embassy in Bishkek. Concerning education ties, he said Hungary has

increased the number of scholarships it offers to university students from the Turkic countries to 870.

“The scheme is a success, with more than 5,000 applications submitted for this academic year,” he said.

Turning to economic relations, Orbán said Hungary’s Eximbank has opened a 545 million dollar credit line to help finance business cooperation and Hungary and Kyrgyzstan last week launched a 16 million dollar joint development fund. Orbán said the Hungarian government supported the establishment of a Turkic investment fund and asked the council to enable Hungary to join it once it is set up. Hungary is prepared to contribute to the fund’s capital, he added.

As regards the situation in Afghanistan, Orbán said

Europe was facing an “unprecedented challenge”

when it came to migration and for the first time was under pressure from three directions. Stopping the emergence of new migration waves from Afghanistan, he added, was a fundamental security interest for Hungary. The prime minister assured the Turkic Council that he would not approve any European Union decision that ignores the security interests of the Turkic countries.

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On the sidelines of the summit, Orbán held bilateral talks with Sadyr Japarov, the president of Kyrgyzstan, and Kassym-Jomart Tokayev, the president of Kazakhstan.

Leading a high-level delegation,

Orbán is on a two-day visit to Turkey.

On Thursday, he took part in the 5th meeting of the Hungarian-Turkish high-level strategic cooperation council in Ankara.

The Turkic Council is an intergovernmental organisation established in 2009 to promote comprehensive cooperation among Turkic speaking states. Its members are Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkey. Hungary has had observer status in the organisation since 2018.