At the Summit of the Hungary – Turkey High Level Strategic Cooperation Council in Istanbul, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced that Hungary proposes that the Turkic Council and the V4 should hold a summit at the highest level in Budapest in the first half of 2022.
In his speech, the Head of the Government of Hungary reminded of the fact that till July 1, 2022 Hungary was holding the rotating presidency of the V4. He also added that the Hungarian and Turkic people have a historical and cultural bond going back to centuries. The Hungarian people are proud of this heritage, and were also proud of it when they were mocked by our adversaries in Europe as Barbarian Huns or the people of Attila.
In his remarks, Viktor Orbán pointed out which of her former commitments to the Turkic Council Hungary has met. Budapest has raised the relations with Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to the level of strategic partnership. In the framework of this, a Hungarian Embassy has been opened in Bishkek.
As far as the issues of education are concerned, the Prime Minister emphasized that Hungary has increased the number of scholarships available to students from the Turkic countries to 870. “The program is successful, more than 5.000 students applied in the current academic year,” he added.
Concerning the commitments in the field of the economy, the Prime Minister said: the Eximbank of Hungary has opened a credit line of USD545 million in order to finance the cooperation among companies. Furthermore, last week Hungary and Kyrgyzstan launched a Development Fund of USD16 million. In his speech, Viktor Orbán underlined that the Government of Hungary found the establishment of the Turkic Investment Fund to be a great initiative. At the same time, the Prime Minister asked the Turkic Council to make it possible for Hungary to join the Fund as early as possible. Hungary was ready to financially contribute to the capital of the Fund, said Viktor Orbán.
In his remarks, the Prime Minister also spoke about the situation in Afghanistan. He said that Europe was facing an enormous challenge of migration. Never before in the history of the continent has it occurred that it simultaneously was coming under pressure from three directions. Viktor Orbán drew the attention to the fact that Hungary had a vested security interest in preventing further waves of migration coming from Afghanistan. In connection with this, the Prime Minister assured the Turkic Council that he will not accede to a single decision by the EU which does not take into consideration the security interests of the Turkic countries.
In the framework of the Summit Meeting in Istanbul, Viktor Orbán conducted bilateral talks with the President of Kyrgyzstan, Sadyr Japarov and the President of Kazakistan, Kasym-Zhomart Tokayev. Before the Summit, the leaders of the participating countries officially opened the new office of the Turkic Council in Istanbul, together with a ceremonial hoisting of the flag.
During the Summit – already number eight – Turkmenistan was granted the statues of an observer.
