Hungarian FM: Romania’s political stability in Hungary’s interest

Political stability in Romania is “extremely important” for Hungary from several aspects, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said after talks with Hunor Kelemen, Romania’s deputy prime minister and head of the ethnic Hungarian RMDSZ party, in Bucharest on Tuesday.

“It is in our interest that there should be political stability [in Romania],” Szijjártó said, adding that RMDSZ greatly contributed to that stability.

The Hungarian government wants to maintain its economic programme to support ethnic Hungarian businesses in Romania, the minister said, but suggested that “wartime inflation could somewhat restrict” the programme.

Read alsoHungarian parliament rejects ‘political pressure’ in declaration

The Hungarian government supports RMDSZ in its endeavours to protect the educational rights of the Hungarian minority, Szijjártó said. He said he hoped that the Roman Catholic Lyceum of Targu Mures (Marosvásárhely) could again become an independent college from next year on.

Szijjártó said that the Hungarian-Romanian economic and ethnic minority joint committees would convene in November. He also announced that two new border crossings, at Dombegyhaza and Elek, would be opened before the end of this year.

Answering a question concerning gas extraction from the Neptun Deep gas field under the Black Sea, Szijjártó said Hungary would be “interested in possible imports” once oil and gas companies Petrom and OMV decided on launching a project. Importing gas from Romania has no infrastructural hindrances as the networks of the two countries have been interconnected, he noted.

Earlier in the day, Szijjártó met Bogdan Lucian Aurescu, his Romanian counterpart, Energy Minister Virgil-Daniel Popescu, Business and Tourism Minister Constantin-Daniel Cadariu, Sports Minister Karoly Eduard Novak, as well as Development, Public Administration, and Public Development Minister Attila Cseke.