Speaking at a joint press conference following the meeting of prime ministers of the Visegrád Group and Moon Jae-in, president of the Republic of Korea, Prime Minister Orbán said that the timing of their talks is essential, as all five countries have felt that, due to the changing landscape in the global economy, capacities closed down by the pandemic need to be reopened where they left off.
“These capacities are now in motion,” PM Orbán said, adding that “the countries of the V4 have joined this competition with the aim of attracting as much investment as possible.” According to the prime minister, South Korea is known to be one of the leading countries in global innovation, and the V4 sees cooperation with Korea as a means to benefit from the new age of the global economy. PM Orbán added that V4 leaders asked the South Korean president to pay close attention to the V4’s biggest economic endeavor to date — the construction of the V4 express railway, meant to join the four capitals.
“What we expect from today’s meeting is that the exemplary economic cooperation between the V4 and Korea will spill over into the fields of science and technology as well,” Prime Minister Orbán said, adding that it is a special honor for Hungarians to welcome the president of South Korea, as the two nations regard each other as brothers.
“The cooperation between the V4 and South Korea is continuously growing stronger, and the leaders of our countries are committed to strengthening the relationship,” President Moon Jae-in said, adding that V4 leaders have demonstrated the strength of their alliance by remaining open-minded. According to Moon Jae-in, South Korea and the Central European region have a lot in common, with swift democratization taking place after the end of the Cold War.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that besides economic cooperation and innovation, climate policy and energy prices featured prominently at today’s meeting.
“The Hungarian V4 Presidency is very active, and organizing this meeting was a very important step indeed, as Korea is an influential trade partner for the group,” Czech PM Andrej Babis said, adding that the V4 is fighting to increase Europe’s competitiveness and significance in the global economy, and relations with South Korea play a key role in this process.
According to Eduard Heger, the prime minister of Slovakia, the world has recently faced massive health, economic and energy challenges, and it is in these times that the friendship between countries matters the most. “We have a lot of things in common with South Korea, such as democracy, free trade and rule of law,” Heger said.