Good afternoon Ladies and Gentlemen, Prime Minister Mickoski.
Thank you for joining us. This visit comes at an important time. For three years we have all been living in the shadow of war, and our best hope is that now war will be replaced by peace. I have told the Prime Minister that we welcome the US–Russian negotiations that have begun, and that we Hungarians have an interest in their success. I informed the Prime Minister that we are in discussion with those European Union Member States who are also our friends and allies, but who have decided that the war in Ukraine must continue. We believe that continuing the war is wrong, dangerous and mistaken. On Thursday – the day after tomorrow – we will discuss this in Brussels. I welcomed the fact that peace resolutions were also negotiated at the UN, where North Macedonia and Hungary took a common position. We supported the US proposal, which was then also adopted by the Security Council.
The issue of migration featured prominently in the discussions. I can tell you that Hungary is grateful to North Macedonia because they are defending their borders, and in doing so they are defending us. The better they defend their borders, the fewer migrants will attack Hungary’s southern borders. I have informed the Macedonian – the North Macedonian – government members that we reject the European Union’s migration pact, and that we will never accept it; and I have also informed them that, for the sake of European friendship, we will have to pay penalties for this.
I told the Prime Minister that North Macedonia can continue to count on Hungary in its European Union integration process. This is not only because it is shameful how slowly this process is progressing, and how the responsibility for this shameful state of affairs lies not with North Macedonia but with us, the European Union Member States; but we also support their membership because the European Union needs to improve its competitiveness. And in today’s EU I see no capacity to improve competitiveness other than through enlargement. So far, every enlargement – including the accession of Hungary – has brought competitiveness improvements to the EU.
We also reviewed our bilateral relations. Our trade volume is steadily increasing. Since Hungary has had a national government, since 2010, this volume has increased sevenfold. As we understand it, North Macedonia and Hungary belong to the same economic region, which includes Serbia. We believe that this is a cohesive, unified economic region, where cooperation has great economic potential. The problem is that we are inside the Union and they are outside, and therefore we cannot organise this region into a single economic force. What can be done in such a situation? This is why this was not only a visit by the Prime Minister, but a joint meeting of the two governments; because the only way to remedy and overcome this problem – of us being inside and them being outside – is to build the strongest possible intergovernmental relations. This will involve the closest and most intensive, the deepest possible contacts and cooperation between the two governments, and it will also involve linking the two countries’ economic systems. In this the two states must play a role. We enjoy very strong financial cooperation. We are also planning a future intergovernmental economic agreement, but alongside the state a role must also be played by private capital and the private economy. We therefore encourage businesses in both countries to participate in each other’s economies as fully as possible.
Of course we reviewed the situation in the Western world, to which we both belong. We can see the transatlantic rift that in recent days has become apparent to the outside world. This transatlantic rift makes it all the more necessary for the two governments to continue to engage with each other as intensively as possible, in the hope that we can find common responses to this situation.
Honourable Prime Minister Mickoski and Members of the Government of North Macedonia,
We are grateful for your cooperation, we thank you for the help we have received from you on the issue of migration, and we look forward to political and economic cooperation that is deeper than that we have had so far.