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HUNGARY ‘STRIVES FOR GOOD TIES’

 

Hungary’s general foreign policy aim is to nurture good ties with the world’s leading powers, and the results of this year show that it has managed to fulfil this goal, the head of the Prime Minister’s Office has said.

Gergely Gulyás told a news conference that Prime Minister Viktor Orbán had met US President Donald Trump earlier this year in Washington, DC, and he referred to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s recent visit to Hungary. Gulyás said that hopefully Orbán would also have talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin later this year. Hungary, he added, is on good terms with China. Concerning Merkel’s visit to Sopron on Monday, Gulyás welcomed her comments on Visegrád cooperation and its value to Europe as a whole, as well as her positive assessment of Hungary’s use of European Union funding. Germany aims to have the new EU budget adopted before the country takes over the EU’s rotating presidency in the second half of 2020, he added.

Gulyás defended the government’s decision to nominate former justice minister László Trócsányi as Hungary’s EU commissioner. In the EU parliamentary election, Trócsányi topped the Fidesz list that won 53% of the vote, he noted, adding that it was not unusual for Hungarian ruling party nominees to be attacked in the European Parliament.