House Speaker László Kövér has met with his Turkish counterpart Binali Yildirim in Izmir to build relations with the Turkic speaking countries.
During his visit, Kövér attended a plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic Speaking Countries (TURKPA) on Wednesday.
“Our Turkic brothers have accepted us as one of them,” Kövér said in his address to the assembly, referring to the fact that Hungary has been an observer in TURKPA since 2014 and in the Turkic Council since September this year.
He said that Hungarians are linked with Turkic peoples through “kinship, shared traditions, similarities in their languages, as well as historical ties”, adding that their geographical positions and geopolitical challenges also connect Hungary with Turkic countries.
Kövér highlighted that climate change is an increasing challenge in terms of supplying the population with food and water, while global migration and terrorism pose further challenges for both Hungary and the Turkic world.
Besides meeting Binali Yildirim, the Turkish house speaker, Kövér also met with Nurlan Nigmatulin, his Kazakh counterpart, and Dastanbek Cumabekov, the Kyrgyz house speaker.