Zsolt Németh, Head of the Hungarian parliament’s foreign affairs committee, said Hungarian-Polish relations are forward- rather than backwards-looking with an interest in finding solutions to problems instead of dwelling on them.
Addressing a panel discussion on Polish-Hungarian ties at the 31st International Economic Forum in Karpacz, in south-western Poland, Németh welcomed recent comments by President Mateusz Morawiecki on reviving bilateral and Visegrad Group cooperation “in the current difficult economic and political situation”. In response to Morawiecki’s interview in the Sieci weekly, Németh told MTI that Hungarian-Polish relations had passed through a period of crisis in the past six months. “We in Hungary, however, have always underscored that we will not allow the war [in Ukraine] to destroy Hungarian-Polish relations,” he said. He dismissed Hungarian press commentary suggesting that Morawieczki’s change of heart was linked to the issue of blocked EU recovery funds for Poland as “utterly ridiculous”. In disputes with the European Union, Poland and Hungary had always “stood shoulder to shoulder” despite differences over the war in Ukraine, he said. He noted President Katalin Novák’s meeting with Andrzej Duda, her Polish counterpart, in Warsaw in May at which they had agreed to jointly press Brussels “to treat us as equal partners and release funding we are entitled to”. “We stand together against any kind of political blackmail,” Németh said.
Photo credit: Facebook/Németh Zsolt