Minister: Visegrád Group cooperation doing as good as ever
The “waves” caused by the war in Ukraine within the Central European Visegrád Group seem to be disappearing, Zsolt Németh, the head of the Hungarian parliament’s foreign affairs committee said, in Bratislava on Monday.
Over the past year, the grouping comprising Hungary, Czechia, Poland and Slovakia has been somewhat shaken by the war, Németh said after a meeting of V4 foreign affairs parliamentary committees, adding, however, that the cooperation was “doing well”.
Over the coming period, the V4 will focus on establishing more and more links between them “in the name of connectivity”, Németh said. The biggest beneficiaries of this, he said, would be southern Poland, northern Czechia, southern Slovakia and northern Hungary. The grouping has seen significant accomplishments in recent years, and there are more projects nearing completion, such as the two new bridges on the river Danube, he said.
Another crucial task, Németh said, was presenting a united front to outside players such as the European Union. He noted as an example that the V4 had thwarted the implementation of migrant resettlement quotas in 2016. All four countries will have greater influence if they can be united on issues on which they agree, he said.
One such issue discussed at Monday’s meeting was that of the Western Balkans, Németh said. He said the war had caused the EU to realise that the solution could be enlargement. This is reflected in the decision to start accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia as well as the granting of candidate country status to Ukraine, he added.
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Source: MTI
Meanwhile, back in the real world: … even some of Orbán’s conservative friends have been alarmed at the Hungarian prime minister’s courting of Russia. Most notably, it has torpedoed the country’s warm relations with Poland. The two countries had previously supported each other over criticism on rule of law issues from Brussels, but now Poland has emerged as a leading supporter of Ukraine.
Sławomir Dębski, director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs in Warsaw, a thinktank close to the Polish government, said Orbán’s position on Russia has in effect ended bilateral ties, as well as activities of the Visegrád Four, a grouping of Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia that holds frequent leader summits and has often been aligned on issues in the past.
“Nobody wants to meet the Hungarians any more. Now, when the time for a summit comes around, everyone starts communicating in Warsaw, Bratislava and Prague, saying ‘What shall we do?’”
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2023/feb/13/hungary-war-and-peace-opera-spotlight-russia-stance-ukraine
Somebody in Bratislava obviously didn’t get the message:
https://dailynewshungary.com/slovak-foreign-minister-orbans-position-is-morally-unacceptable/
Pigs have learned to fly!