Foreign minister: Close V4 cooperation needed with Turkey

The Visegrád Group countries have agreed on the need to build strategic cooperation with Turkey, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said after a videoconference on Friday with counterparts.

Good relations with Turkey are a positive as far as efforts to contain the novel coronavirus is concerned, Szijjártó said on Facebook, noting that Hungary is among countries to have purchased protective equipment from Turkey.

He said Turkey would soon be among the world’s ten biggest economies. “We can’t afford ignore the world’s fastest developing economy as a target market for our exports,” he said.

Meanwhile, Turkey and central European countries are committed to the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, the minister said. Energy policy should be a national matter, he said, adding that the importance of nuclear energy was being questioned in western Europe and the EU.

Cooperation on nuclear energy, he added, would be an important area in cooperation between Turkey and central Europe.

Also, curbing migration is a priority in EU-Turkey relations, Szijjártó said, adding that Turkey was instrumental in preventing waves of migrants to western Europe. He called on the EU to pay Turkey 6 billion euros it had promised, saying this was a small amount compared to the costs accrued from uncontrolled migration.