Foreign ministers confirm Hungarian-Slovak alliance

Hungary and Slovakia are not only neighbours but allies, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Monday after talks with Miroslav Lajcak, his Slovak counterpart.

“Over the past few years, both countries have worked hard to achieve this reality,” he told a joint press conference in Budapest.

Cooperation between the two countries on issues regarding the future of the European Union is robust, he said, adding that both Hungary and Slovakia have stood up to illegal migration and the introduction of mandatory resettlement quotas.

In the debates over the EU’s 2021-2027 financial cycle, both countries claim that central European nations have a right to EU cohesion funds under the EU treaties, he said.

Currently Slovakia holds the rolling presidency of the Visegrad Group, the closest and most effective alliance within the EU, he said. Despite repeated attempts to break this, cooperation remains close, and in the past few weeks alone V4 members have demonstrated their solidarity many times, he added.

Fast improving Hungary-Slovakia relations are beneficial to ethnic Hungarians in Slovakia and also to ethnic Slovaks in Hungary.

Bilateral trade exceeded 10 billion euros last year and Slovakia is Hungary’s third most important trading partner, Szijjártó said. An economic development programme for southern Slovakia, which is inhabited by many ethnic Hungarians, will be continued and transport links are being developed, with a new public road bridge in Komarom and a high-speed road link in Rajka to be opened next year, he added. Three new bridges will be built across the River Ipoly with the help of EU funding, and the relaunch of two discontinued railway links is being planned, he said.