V4 planning to support Tunisia border defence, says Hungarian foreign minister in Prague

Visegrad Group countries will help Tunisia beef up controls of its border, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó told MTI on Friday.

Szijjártó said he had phoned his Tunisian counterpart Khemaies Jhinaoui after V4 foreign ministers in Prague agreed to set up an assistance programme for North African countries aimed at developing border control capacities with a view to withstanding illegal migration.

Szijjártó said the group was considering cooperation opportunities with Morocco and Tunisia, which have “done a lot so far to maintain their stability, thus contributing to Europe’s security”.

“Europe’s security starts in North Africa,” he added.

Preventing further migration waves is crucial to maintaining European security, Szijjártó said, adding that “Tunisia has been a reliable partner in that sense”.

Szijjarto: Hungarian-Czech economic cooperation at new level

Economic cooperation between Hungary and the Czech Republic “has reached a new level” over the recent period, the foreign affairs and trade minister said in Prague.

Based on the currently available data, the volume of trade between the two countries will be close to ten billion euros by the end of the year, Szijjártó told public media. This clearly demonstrates “the new dimension” of bilateral ties, he added.

There have been a number of Hungarian businesses that have had success on the Czech market, the minister said. Hungarian oil and gas company MOL, for example, operates 306 petrol stations in the country and has become the number two oil and gas company in the Czech Republic, he said.