Hungary-Croatia governments work together to boost cooperation
Hungary and Croatia are working on further developing their bilateral cooperation, Péter Szijjártó, the minister of foreign affairs and trade, said in Nagykanizsa, in south-western Hungary, on Tuesday, adding that all conditions were in place for this.
Hungary strives for good relations with all of its neighbours, including Croatia, Szijjártó told a joint press conference with Croatian counterpart Gordan Grlic-Radman, according to a ministry statement.
He thanked Grlic-Radman for Zagreb’s refusal to join “the ranks of those baselessly accusing and slandering” the Hungarian government, noting a signature drive against a Hungarian law aimed at protecting children from “fierce gender propaganda”.
He said another good basis for cooperation was the Hungarian air force’s participation in policing Croatia’s air space at least until the end of the year, and that both countries have always devoted close attention to supporting their national communities.
“This means that the Croatian community in Hungary receives all the support it needs from the Hungarian government, and we are happy to say that the Croatian government, too, has always looked out for Hungarians in Croatia,” the minister added.
He said they aim to further develop bilateral cooperation, build new roads on the border and establish a new motorway link by extending the M6 motorway as soon as possible.
Szijjártó said there were also plans to build a new bridge at Murakeresztur, new road links with Croatia at Sarok and Zakany, and the aim was to intensify bilateral energy cooperation.
He said they have asked Hungary’s and Croatia’s biggest energy companies to continue their intensive negotiations in the interest of developing energy cooperation.
Szijjártó also said the Hungarian government would “never support any proposal from Brussels that would hurt the country’s energy security or increase utility costs”, and they opposed the plan to ban Russian energy imports.
“We consider the issue of energy sovereignty a key aspect of our sovereignty, and we don’t accept being told from Brussels what energy sources we can buy and from whom,” Szijjártó said.
He said that when it came to energy imports, the Hungarian government cared about reliability and favourable prices. “And of course, we’re always interested in negotiating the purchase of cheaper and more reliable resources than what we have,” he said. “At the same time, we’ll only make a switch if someone offers us cheaper and more reliable resources than what we have, and we won’t accept being blackmailed from the outside into giving up good working relationships.”
Hungary, he said, believed in diversification, adding that this was what inspired oil and gas company MOL and state-owned energy group MVM in their talks on intensifying energy cooperation between Hungary and Croatia.
Read here for more news about relations between Hungary and Croatia
As we wrote earlier, Croatia postpones completion of final section of Budapest-Adriatic motorway – details here