Orbán, Sarec discuss migration, aid to Africa

Hungary and Slovenia are both “well aware of what migration and illegal border crossings mean”, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on Monday in Budapest, after talks with Marjan Sarec, his Slovenian counterpart.

“We both know what it means when masses attempt to cross our borders and transit our countries illegally,” he said. “We know what it’s like when they’re not coming to us but just want to pass through and we know what it’s like when the law, national interests and the humaneness of handling things the right way are in conflict with one another.”

Hungary and Slovenia are planning to deliver medical equipment to Africa together, “in line with the idea that we should not import trouble but take the help where it’s needed,” he said.

Hungary is “very sympathetic” towards Slovenia’s efforts to defend its borders, Orbán said.

He said there were 96,000 migrants currently navigating the Balkan migration route on their way to western Europe. Orbán added, however, that it was impossible to tell whether they would try to make their way to Hungary or to Slovenia via Croatia.

Hungary, however, has a “heartland” together with the Visegrad Group, Orbán said, adding that the V4 had an agreement that if the migration pressure on Hungary were to suddenly increase, the Czech Republic, Poland and Sloviakia would send patrol units to the Hungarian-Serbian border.

“We’re also ready to cooperate with Slovenia in the most specific and deepest way possible if it serves Slovenia’s interests,” he added.

Regarding the European Union’s enlargement, Orbán said that “now that the EU has botched the decision on starting accession talks with Albania and North Macedonia”, it should at least step up the talks with Serbia “to keep the prospect of [joining] the EU open for the Balkans.”

He noted, at the same time, that some member states believe that the entire enlargement process needed to be rethought.

On the topic of Hungarian-Slovenian relations, Orbán praised the competitiveness of Slovenia’s economy, saying:

“There’s plenty we can pick up and learn from them.”

He said that although bilateral economic cooperation was improving each year, it was expanding at a slower pace than Hungary’s cooperation with the rest of its neighbours.

Hungary’s Eximbank has opened a 165 million euro credit line to promote business ties between Hungarian and Slovenian companies, the prime minister said, adding that Hungary will be a guest of honour at Slovenia’s biggest economic fair next year.

Orbán also said that the Hungarian government has recently transferred 900 million forints (EUR 2.7m) to the Raba region — the area in Hungary with the largest indigenous Slovene population — for the economic development schemes to be carried out there. In addition, the government has so far spent some 2 billion forints on development schemes to be carried out in Slovenia’s Mura region, he said. Concerning the government’s economic development schemes, Orbán said he had proposed to Sarec the establishment of a cross-border regional development fund.