Hungarian foreign minister meets counterpart Lavrov

New York, September 22 (MTI) – Hungary-Russia relations are pragmatic and based on mutual respect, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said after meeting counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.

Szijjártó told MTI that he had assured Lavrov at the meeting that it is clearly in Hungary’s interest and also central Europe’s interest that well-balanced and good relations are maintained between Russia and Europe and between Russia and the transatlantic community.

“Whenever the opposite happened during history, central Europe and Hungary came off badly,” he said. It is also in Hungary’s interest that relations should be well-balanced but the current situation is not developing is this direction, he added.

“We Hungarians can contribute to fulfilling this desired goal by maintaining pragmatic and logical dialogue with Russia based on mutual respect,” Szijjártó said. There is openness to this approach from both sides, he added.

Szijjártó highlighted a Hungarian-Russian consortium that with the help of Hungary’s Eximbank is in the advanced stage of talks on transporting of 700 railway carriages to Egypt.

“If we only look at bilateral relations then Hungarian-Russian ties are naturally developing well in terms of what is possible, and they are based on mutual respect,” he said. At the same time, he added that Hungary expects everyone to respect international law.

The situation in Syria and the handling of the crisis was an important topic at the talks, Szijjártó said.

“I told Sergei Lavrov that Hungary attaches special importance to the settlement of the situation in Syria because unless the Americans and Russians can work together in the interest of securing a swift peace … further groups of migrants could set off towards Europe, which we would very much like to avoid,” he said.

Photo: MTI

Source: MTI