Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has said that Hungary will stick by its friends and is on Turkey’s side during a Hungarian-Turkish business forum in Ankara.
According to MTI, the prime minister said Hungary’s backing of Turkey is not a one-off event but the consequence of a strategy.
“Being a conservative country, it is human values that matter. Business is important, but what’s most important is that one should have friends,” the prime minister said. "There are some obligations that result from this and Hungary will stick by its friends, even when this is uncomfortable," he added.
“No matter what anti-Turkish manifestations there are in important European countries, Hungary will never join these", but will take Turkey’s side, PM Orbán added.
Turkey is on the edge of Europe and it is protecting what is inside Europe, the prime minister said. Had it not fulfilled this obligation, Europe would have been flooded by many millions of migrants and “we would not be able to handle that”, he said. “Turkey deserves respect for this, which we will always give it.”
“If I were Turkish, at first sight I would not pay that much attention to the Hungarian economy because Turkey will soon become the largest country in Europe; much larger than Hungary,” PM Orbán said.
“At the same time, Hungary, with a population of 10 million, is able to produce exports worth 110 billion US dollars compared to Turkey with a population of 80 million producing exports of 145 billion dollars,” he added.
Turkish businessmen should look to Hungary as “Europe’s most secure country," the prime minister said. While public safety is deteriorating in Europe, Hungary is secure and predictable and its taxes are low, with a 9 percent corporate tax rate and one of Europe’s lowest personal income tax rates, while there is no inheritance tax, he added
The Hungarian delegation also took part in a high-level strategic council meeting and the third Hungarian-Turkish “cabinet meeting”, an inter-governmental summit.
On the sidelines of the Turkish-Hungarian summit, the two prime ministers also held separate talks to discuss bilateral relations.