Hungarian FM: Boosting C Asia in Europe’s interest

 One of the most important tasks of the coming years will be building safe transit routes between Asia and Europe, and that is impossible without central Asia, the foreign minister said in Baku on Thursday.

Speaking at the United Nations Special Programme for the Economies of Central Asia (SPECA), Péter Szijjártó said the economic and security challenges Europe was facing due to wars and falling competitiveness “should have steered [the bloc] back to reason and common sense”. Instead, debates had become more politicised and ideological, threatening with steering European politics towards creating blocks in the world, he said.

He lamented that “risk avoidance” was gaining momentum in Europe, saying it aimed to decouple European and Chinese economies. Hungary’s government sees the cooperation between East and West as a great opportunity rather than danger, he added.

Severing ties with Russia had contributed to “the collapse of the growth model followed so far” in Europe. Similar actions with China would be equivalent to a “gut-punch” for the European economy, he said.

Central Europe believes in “civilised cooperation between East and West”, and central Asia can be an important bridge in that, he said. Hungary supports all moves boosting the region and cooperation there, he added.