Orbán: Hungary wants major powers to have interest in economic success

He said the acquisition of such a system dovetailed with Hungary’s multi-year military development programme. Orbán added that once the scheme is completed, Hungary would be capable of defending itself against attacks from any direction.

“I’m one of those people who consider NATO important, but I don’t think Hungary’s security should be based solely on NATO,” Orbán said. “We need to be capable of defending ourselves against attacks on our own.”

Asked how Russia could react to this, Orbán said that though Hungary’s relationship with Russia was important, “Hungary’s military security comes first”.

Commenting on the issue of energy security, and specifically the importance of a Russian-German gas pipeline, the construction of a pipeline in the Black Sea and the issue of Croatia’s LNG terminal, Orbán said Hungary was glad to cooperate on energy security but it would not be pressured into buying gas at above-market prices from anyone. This is why, he said, it was “good news” that Hungary and Slovenia had succeeded in getting the European Union to consider their joint bid for EU funds to interconnect their gas networks, so that Hungary can import LNG from Italy.

Asked about his government’s strategy of opening to China, Orbán said analyses to the effect that Hungarian-Chinese ties “hold any weight in the eyes of the US secretary of state” were “fatuous”, noting that Hungary’s annual trade volume with China only accounts for 1.2 percent of EU-China trade.

“Hungary’s goal is for the world’s major powers to have an interest in its economic success, therefore we welcome investors from China, too,” Orbán said.

Featured image: MTI

Source: MTI