Foreign minister praises ties with Serbia

Ties between Hungary and Serbia have never been as good as now, Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó said on Friday and noted recent efforts to improve those relations.

Szijjártó spoke after talks with Nikola Selakovic, his Serbian counterpart, and said that the two countries were closely connected through a shared history, a Hungarian community in Serbia, as well as joint projects.

The many existing ties between Hungary and Serbia mean that their economies will grow together over the coming years, Szijjártó said.

Hungary’s largest companies, including OTP Bank and oil and gas company MOL, also play key roles in Serbia’s economy, he said. Fully 24 Hungarian companies have lodged bids for investment projects worth a combined 49 billion forints (EUR 137.9m) in Serbia with support from the Hungarian government, the minister added.

Concerning the upgrade and extension of the Szeged-Subotica (Szabadka) rail line, Szijjártó said the two countries had agreed to have the project completed by the spring of 2022.

He said the Budapest-Belgrade rail line would be the fastest route for Chinese goods shipped into Greek ports to western Europe.

As regards energy affairs, Szijjártó said gas supply was always a critical issue for Hungary and central Europe as a whole. New gas pipelines are being built between Turkey and Europe that will traverse Bulgaria and Serbia, he said, noting that the section linking the Hungary-Serbia border with the national gas pipeline network would be completed by October next year.

On another subject, the minister said Hungary’s economic development scheme geared towards Vojvodina has generated 116 billion forints’ worth of investments.

None of Hungary’s neighbouring countries respect the rights of their Hungarian minority communities more than Serbia, Szijjártó said. He noted that Serbia’s government has involved the Alliance of Vojvodina Hungarians (VMSZ) in its work and allowed the Vojvodina provincial parliament to have a Hungarian speaker.