Minister Szijjártó awards Order of Merit to outgoing Russian Ambassador
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Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó on Tuesday handed the outgoing Russian Ambassador, Vladimir Nikolaevich Sergeyev, the Order of Merit of the Republic of Hungary, Middle Cross with the Star.
At the event, Szijjártó said that Hungary aimed to develop mutually beneficial ties with Russia based on mutual respect.
Hungary has economic and security interests in such ties, Szijjártó said.
“Hungary has gleaned from history that good cooperation between East and West is best for the country. Central Europe usually loses out if there is a conflict between East and West,” he said.
The minister noted that European Union-Russia sanctions had dented Hungary’s economy but several “success stories” also emerged in recent years, among them the Paks nuclear power plant project, the International Investment Bank’s new headquarters in Budapest, the delivery of Hungarian-Russian railway carriages to Egypt and Russia’s supplies of the Sputnik V vaccine to Hungary.