The Visegrád cooperation has “meaning and future” despite differences in opinion on support for Ukraine, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said after attending a summit of the Visegrád Group in Prague on Tuesday. Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó welcomed it as good news for Hungary that the leaders of the four Visegrád Group countries agreed on continuing the bloc’s cooperation at their meeting in Prague on Tuesday which he said was also in Hungary’s national interest.
“Today’s meeting convinced me that Visegrád is alive and important. We are able to respectfully acknowledge our differences even if we debate each other’s stances. We continue to strengthen cooperation in joint issues. Hungary is ready to do that,” Orbán told a press conference.
The Czech, Polish and Slovak prime ministers also acknowledged differences and took a stance for continued cooperation.
Orbán said the summit “was not one of the easiest ones” as it had focused on “self-reflection” and on whether the Visegrád Group should be maintained in its current form.
He noted that a similar meeting had taken place after the EU integration of the Visegrád countries, ending in the decision to maintain cooperation.
The war in Ukraine “has overwritten everything”, and so the issue was back on the table, Orbán said.
Avoid joint border with Russia
The prime ministers of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia were in agreement that Russia’s attack on Ukraine had been a “gross violation of international law”, and that Ukraine needed aid, Orbán said. “Hungary has another issue, namely that it wants to avoid having a joint border with Russia again, as it had bad experiences in the past,” he added.
“One of the most important baselines of Hungarian national security is to have an entity between us and Russia. We help Ukraine also out of our own national interest,” he said.
At the same time, Orbán said the Visegrád countries disagreed on “how to help Ukraine well”.
“Hungary’s stance is clear: we shall not send weapons to Ukraine, with or without troops, but are ready to provide any other aid,” he said, noting the country’s efforts on humanitarian aid and care to Ukrainian refugees.
Despite those differences, Orbán said carrying on with the Visegrád cooperation “makes sense”.
Cooperation has been successful on issues such as illegal migration “as the matter of [mandatory resettlement] quotas is not off the table”. “Without our cooperation, tens or hundreds of thousands of migrants would be roaming our countries.”
It is impossible to tell who will win
Asked who he thought would win the war, Orbán called the question a “trap” and said “it is impossible to tell who will win.”
He rejected “branding” one or the other of the parties “culpable or guilty… that doesn’t lead anywhere”. “I suggest everyone maintains a strategic calm on the issue.”
“All countries have the right to view the Russia-Ukraine war from Russia or Ukraine’s viewpoint.” Hungary, Orbán said, was unique in that respect as it viewed the matter from a Hungarian viewpoint. Hungarians maintain that neither Russia nor Ukraine backed by the West would be able to defeat the other, he said. In that situation, it is imperative to save lives and start peace talks as soon as possible, he said.
He rejected the notion that Hungary had been isolated in international politics because of its views on the war.
Responding a question, all four prime ministers said their countries were not considering to send troops to Ukraine.
Robert Fico of Slovakia said his country “will give all aid needed to Ukraine, except for weapons and ammunition.”
Petr Fiala of Czechia and Donald Tusk of Poland said they would be ready to continue to provide weapons and ammunition.
UPDATE 1: Differences are not as large as they seemed before
The Visegrád countries agree that Russia is the aggressor in the war in Ukraine, and that the latter must be aided, the prime ministers of Czechia, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia told a joint press conference on Tuesday after a summit in Prague. Petr Fiala of Czechia and Donald Tusk of Poland reiterated that their countries would continue supporting Ukraine “in all areas including weapon and ammunition deliveries”. Fiala said Czechia had committed to organising ammunition procurement from third countries “since European countries have run out of free reserves”. The scheme is supported by some 15 countries, Fiala said.
Tusk called Russian President Vladimir Putin a “war criminal”. Viktor Orbán of Hungary and Robert Fico of Slovakia called for peace talks as soon as possible. “The differences between the Visegrád countries are not as large as they seemed earlier,” Tusk said.
UPDATE 2: FM Szijjártó welcomes V4 agreement on continuing cooperation
Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó welcomed it as good news for Hungary that the leaders of the four Visegrád Group countries agreed on continuing the bloc’s cooperation at their meeting in Prague on Tuesday which he said was also in Hungary’s national interest. Szijjártó noted the V4’s “outstanding achievements” in ensuring that central Europe remained “strong, sovereign and competitive”.
“Many were probably expecting the disintegration of the bloc”, he said, adding that the V4 prime ministers had stood up for continued cooperation.
“This is also in our national interest so that we can cooperate in future on matters that will strengthen Hungary, its sovereignty and economic competitiveness,” the foreign minister said, according to a ministry statement.
“The four of us will be able to cooperate in preserving our sovereignty and in designing our own energy mix, as well as in preserving our competitiveness by setting our own tax rates,” said Szijjártó.
He also welcomed that the V4 countries would be able to decide on their own how to protect their farmers against the glut of poor quality grain from outside Europe.
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