Hungary calls for stronger Visegrád cooperation and economic integration at V4 Business Conference

Hungary is ready to develop further the successful cooperation among the Visegrád Group — Hungary, Czechia, Poland and Slovakia — and strengthen trade and economic ties, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó said at a conference in Budapest on Thursday.

Addressing the Visegrád 4 Business Conference, Szijjártó called V4 cooperation an “important element” of Hungary’s foreign policy strategy, his ministry said in a statement. He added that the V4 had improved the positions of its members on the European stage.

He warned against initiatives in the EU to decouple the economies of the East and the West and pointed to the V4’s earlier negative experience with blocs. Isolation can cause “serious damage” to Europe’s economy, he said, adding that Hungary was an advocate for connectivity and had adopted a policy of economic neutrality.

He said Hungary had become a “meeting point” for investments from the East and the West and was home to manufacturing bases of all three premium German car brands and five of the ten biggest Asian battery makers.

He said the V4 should concentrate on “pragmatic issues” and noted that Slovakia was now Hungary’s second-biggest trade partner, while Poland was the third-biggest and Czechia the sixth-biggest.

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