FM Szijjártó: Hungarian and Russian ties tighten
Hungary will begin talks with Russia next week on permission to use the Russian Sputnik Light coronavirus vaccine in the country, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in Obninsk near Moscow on Friday.
Hungary is also set to begin manufacturing the Sputnik V jab at the end of next year, Szijjártó told a press conference after a meeting of the Hungarian-Russian inter-governmental economic cooperation committee.
Also, the upgrade of the Paks nuclear power plant will enter into its implementation stage next year, the minister said. Russia has submitted one of the eight necessary permit requests for the project, he added.
Other areas of cooperation include Hungarian low-cost airline Wizz Air expanding its number of flights between Debrecen and Moscow to two per week from Dec. 13, and next year it will launch a direct flight between Budapest and Yekaterinburg, Szijjártó said.
Meanwhile, Hungary and Russia will sign an agreement on the establishment of a rail freight joint venture on Dec. 16, Szijjártó said. Also a Russian cosmetics company will build an 18 billion forint (EUR 49m) plant in Alsozsolca, in north-eastern Hungary, creating 260 jobs, he said.
Hungary signed two crucial agreements with Russia this year; one on the purchase of life-saving vaccines and another one on the supply of natural gas, Szijjártó said. In terms of Hungarian-Russian cooperation, this year outshone previous ones, the minister said.
Hungary and Russia are engaged in pragmatic cooperation and “anyone who opposes that acts against the interests of the Hungarian people”, he added.
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Asked how he saw the future of bilateral ties in view of a pledge by the new German government to step up the pressure on Moscow and countries that cooperate with it, Szijjártó said: “We’re seeing immense hypocrisy when it comes to bilateral ties with Russia.”
“In our view, the further west a country is in Europe, the stronger and better its cooperation is with Russia,” the minister said.
“It would be nice if they put an end to this hypocrisy and if the words of the western European countries reflected their actions,” Szijjártó said. “I understand that we’re in their way on the Russian market because we are competitors in some matters, but we refuse to give up the Hungarian interests that stem from our cooperation with Russia.”
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Asked when the two countries would mutually recognise each other’s Covid immunity certificates, Szijjártó noted that Russia and Hungary had relaxed entry restrictions for each other’s citizens as much as they could. Hungarian travellers are required to produce a negative PCR test to enter Russia, while Hungary requires Russian tourists to be vaccinated, he noted.
Meanwhile, Szijjártó called it “appalling” that some were attempting to politicise the issue of vaccines. “I consider it pathetic, in fact, since lives are at stake,” Szijjártó said. “I consider it appalling that to this day vaccines are being made into a political and ideological issue in some countries.”
“Vaccines are not an ideological issue; vaccines save lives and political ideology can’t be used to save lives,” he added.
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Szijjártó thanked Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko for having helped Hungary to procure supplies of the Sputnik V jab during a vaccine shortage early this year.
“It was already clear back then that the vaccine would save lives,” Szijjártó said. “And it was also clear that those who procured them quicker could save lives quicker and save more.”
“Looking back I can say that the success of Hungary’s vaccination campaign was contingent on our ability to start administering jabs early,” he said. “And the reason we were able to do that was because we had more vaccines than others.”
Szijjártó said his Western counterparts all admitted privately that the Russian jab was effective.
At the event, Szijjártó and Hungary’s Chief Medical Officer Cecilia Muller presented Murashko with the Medium Cross of the Order of Merit of Hungary.
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Source: MTI
Hungary has opted back into the EU’s third vaccine purchase agreement with Pfizer/BioNTech, the European Commission has told Euronews. According to EU sources, Hungary asked to rejoin the vaccine procurement scheme in September.
The move comes as a surprise, after the Hungarian government signalled last May that it did not want any more vaccines from the EU’s joint procurement scheme.
Well well, not shouting this from the rooftops is he.
Transparency of Factual negotiations continues to be a massive question mark over this present Hungarian Government – refering to comments of U turn.
Any truth in the rumour that from 2022 on – school children will be encouraged to take either – Mandarin, the offical Language of China or Russian ?
Why would this be I wonder ?
News on a near daily basics – reports PARTNERSHIPS continue to grow with these (2) two countries that deeply involve the Future of Hungary.
Interesting if any TRUTH to this topic of discussion ///
@U Turn,
Hungary acted acted correctly at the start. The EU sat on their coat tails and did nothing, then during the first and second waves, most of the west suffered because of allowing Politics into treatment. You have to ask, why after all this time is Sputnik still not approved in the west?
Now, its a matter of cordinating and buying in bulk knowing its hear to stay for a while. The governments, nobody’s fool.
Close ties with Russia are unfortunate and if the EU was not so aggressive and hostile to Hungary and her internal policies, it wouldn’t happen.
I am afraid that as the far-left, globalist, Marxist EU gets even more aggressive with Hungary; Hungary will have to look for new partners to protect her interests.
The EU should think about the consequences of its hostile actions against Hungary.
What kind of idiots decide to purchase or manufacture a vaccine no other Western nation accepts for travel? Either get the Russians to stop fucking around and get it approved or use something else. Sputnik is a good vaccine, but as many Hungarians know, it’s problematic when crossing borders because it isn’t approved by the EU or US or UK.
Péter Szijjártó said that we use vaccines to save Hungarian lives. The West uses vaccines for politics.
Hungary; lives ahead of politics
West; politics above everything
@Mortified
You ask the questions a westerner would not knowing the history of Hungarians. Extremely briefly, while it’s not slapping anyone in the face, but we Hungarians are of a whole bunch of tribes that were already scattered all over Asia and Europe for a very long time(over 10,000 years or more). Recently, only 7 of these chieftans joined a partnership and formed the Kingdom of Hungary, check them out at “Heroes Square on Horseback”.
We were based in Central China prior to 1800yrs ago and moved into Europe as the world largest migrating nation. Where we came from we had Chinese friends and Moscovite friends(today called Russians, still dont know why). So we spoke commonly along the ‘Silk route” with them regularly to say the least.
Although now in Central Europe, Hungarians don’t turn their backs on old friends, especially when in Europe we’re so intermingled, much like the Brits are, Brits and continental Europeans are, the Brits and North Americans are, etc. etc, etc. Just because we come from two different ends, doesnt mean one should disrespect the other, even if they’re not familiar with the others history.
Welcome to the Soviet republic of Orbanistan.
People are always afraid of what they don’t understand: Other people different than they, Hostiles, Other countries far away, Vaccines, but not ‘Mario coments’, everyones had one in their class growing up and wondered whatever became of them.