Coronavirus – Foreign minister: Countries in region relying on each other

The current novel coronavirus epidemic shows just how much countries in the Carpathian Basin and the broader region rely on each other, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said in Cluj (Kolozsvár), on Friday.

At a press conference held jointly with ethnic Hungarian party RMDSZ leader Hunor Kelemen, Szijjártó noted that the Hungarian government recently set up a humanitarian corridor for Romanians making their way from Austria to their homeland. The government at the same time asked the Romanian authorities to help avoid tailbacks on the Hungarian side of the border, he said.

“Regrettably, experiences so far aren’t positive,” he said. “Over night, tailbacks of 15-20km formed at the Hungarian-Romanian border due to Romanian border police procedures.” He added that Hungarian authorities had been able to successfully address that issue with their Austrian and Slovak counterparts, and they would not withhold their cooperation from Romania.

Szijjártó said that he hoped bilateral ties with Romania would be characterised by “mutual respect, mutual assistance and mutual loyalty.” Hungary is ready to build such relations, he added.

The foreign minister noted that on the day he received his Romanian counterpart’s request to help Romanians return via Hungary, another Romanian government agency had fined the mayor of Sfantu Gheorghe (Sepsiszentgyorgy) several thousand euros for using Hungarian symbols on the day of Hungary’s March 15 national holiday. “It would be good to avoid such cases. We will help Romanian nationals return to their homeland, but in these hard times we request that ties are governed by mutual assistance and reciprocated solidarity.”