Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said that Hungary is ready for opening a new chapter in the cooperation with Turkic states.
The prime minister made the remarks during the 6th meeting of the Cooperation Council of Turkic Speaking States in Cholpon-Ata in Kyrgyzstan.
Péter Szijjártó, minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, revealed over the weekend that Hungary has been granted observer status in the International Turkic Academy.
The prime minister said Hungary has always focused on the cooperation of Turkic speaking states that nurture their language, culture and traditions even in the modern world.
“Hungarians consider themselves late descendants of Attila, of Hun-Turkic origin, and Hungarian is a relative of Turkic languages,” PM Orbán said. “Only those people can be strong who are proud of their national identity,” he added.
PM Orbán said that in light of the “fantastic” economic and political development of Turkic countries “it is to be taken as an expression of praise if Hungarians are called an Eastern people”.
The prime minister argued that the “old era” in which capital and knowledge was moving from West to East was over, and added that “the new world order will primarily be dominated by the development of countries rising in the East”.
Hungary has had a strategic partnership with Turkey, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, PM Orbán said, adding that the goal was to also raise ties with Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to that level.
Finally, PM Orbán noted that Hungary’s Eximbank had opened a 1.5 billion USD credit line to promote economic cooperation with Turkic countries.