Good morning.
Honourable Presidents,
I extend a warm welcome to the presidents, the Secretary-General, ministers and the members of the delegations. Welcome to this informal summit of the Organization of Turkic States. Welcome to our Chairman, President Japarov, welcome to President Erdoğan, President Tokayev, President Aliyev, President Mirziyoyev and our Secretary-General, President Omuraliev. It is an honour to have you here with us in Budapest.
You are in Budapest. This is the name of a city, but it used to be two cities: Buda and Pest. Buda is an ancient name: he was the brother of the great king Attila, the brother of the King of the Huns. So to this day the name of our capital city bears the name of the brother of the King of the Huns. That alone would be reason enough to meet in Budapest. It shows the very deep, historical, spiritual and cultural link that makes Hungary part of the Organization of Turkic States. It is an honour to host the Organization’s summit for the first time.
Mr. Chairman, we joined seven years ago; and if you think back to how different the world was then, I too would never have imagined the importance of this organisation growing as enormously as we have seen it grow. Seven years ago I could already see that the world of the Turkic peoples was on the rise, but I did not think that while the Turkic world was developing and rising, the development of the environment surrounding Hungary – the European world, the European Union – would slow down and stagnate, and even find itself in a dramatic predicament. In the meantime, the combined GDP of the Organization of Turkic States has increased by 20 per cent, and trade between our countries has increased from 30 billion dollars to 45 billion dollars. So when I look at us, I see a very dynamic region with successful countries and great economic development. Friendship is important, and this is why we are in this organisation with you; but the last seven years have seen the value of this relationship for Hungary increase dramatically – in fact for us it has become strategic. In fact it is you – it is this organisation, it is your countries – that give Hungary the backing it needs. If today Hungary were only able to rely on the dynamism of the European economy, we would be in big trouble. We also need the dynamism within the development of the Turkic world; otherwise our country, Hungary, will be unable to develop at the pace it needs to develop. If we add to this the fact that we have been living next door to a war for three years, and that this has had dramatic economic consequences for us, warding these off would not have been possible without your cooperation.
First of all, on behalf of the Hungarian people I would like to thank the presidents for always standing on the side of peace over the past three years. This is not only a morally sound position, but also in our interests. I would especially like to express the Hungarian people’s great appreciation of the President of Türkiye for his successful peace mission and mediation. And I congratulate you, Mr. President, on the fact that after three years, direct Russo–Ukrainian talks have again been held on your country’s soil.
The presidents surely know that as a result of the war, the whole of Europe – including us Hungarians – is living through a continuous energy crisis. Here in Europe today we have to pay three or four times as much for energy – for electricity and natural gas – as they do in America or China. This is why today Europe cannot be competitive – because with such price conditions it is impossible to run a competitive economy. Moreover, the sanctions that have been imposed have destroyed the development model on which the whole of Europe was built. This was also the basis for Hungarian development. The arrangement was that we had advanced Western technology, which we could combine with readily available energy from the East – essentially from Russia; and this combination resulted in a competitive economy and rapid growth. But the policy of sanctions has completely destroyed that. I would like to inform the presidents that here in Europe today we do not have an economic strategy: the old one no longer exists, and a new one has yet to be created. So today the European economy – including the Hungarian economy – is adrift in a stormy sea, without a compass. As the presidents will know, the Ukrainians have closed the pipeline system from Russia to Hungary, which would have put Hungary in an impossible situation, even a tragic one, if in previous years we had not established a deep cooperation with you. You may recall – as President Erdoğan certainly will – how there were huge debates here in the West about whether the TurkStream pipeline should be built. The Westerners did everything they could to prevent it from being built, but we persevered and built it. If it were not for this pipeline system now, there would be no natural gas and no energy in Hungary today. So I would also like to take this opportunity to thank President Erdoğan for persevering with this project, which is now our umbilical cord and the lifeblood of the Hungarian economy.
By the same token, I would like to thank President Aliyev, because last year the first natural gas supplies arrived from Azerbaijan – was the first time this has ever happened. And I have received a promise from the President that we can expect this to continue in the future. I would also like to thank President Aliyev for letting the big Hungarian energy companies into the oil and gas fields of Azerbaijan. Since we do not have our own energy resources, this has opened up a whole new dimension for us, and it is therefore vital for us that relations between Azerbaijan and Hungary should be at a strategic level.
I must also thank President Tokayev, who has made it possible for energy production in Kazakhstan to take place with the involvement of Hungarian companies. We are therefore grateful for your belief in this cooperation, and for the fact that after many years it has finally come to fruition. Thank you, Mr. President!
I welcome President Mirziyoyev’s commitment to Hungary, and that we have been able to establish a special economic relationship. We hope that if nuclear capacities are built in Uzbekistan, we will be able to offer the sixty years of knowledge that we have in this industry, and we will be able to say that we have created a fantastic dynamic in Uzbek–Hungarian economic relations.
And I would also like to thank President Japarov, who has invited Hungarian companies to participate in the modernisation of Kyrgyzstan. We had bilateral talks this morning, and I can see that the Kyrgyz–Hungarian financial fund is working effectively and we will be able to participate in the modernisation of Kyrgyzstan. For this we are grateful to President Japarov. It may even be that we will jointly build a hydroelectric power plant in Kyrgyzstan.
And thanks to President Mirziyoyev an industrial park exclusively dedicated to Hungarian companies will begin operations in Uzbekistan.
Honourable Presidents,
Thank you again for accepting my invitation. Thank you for the fact that Hungary can count on you as friends. Thank you for the opportunity to raise our bilateral relations with each of you to a strategic level. And thank you, on behalf of the Hungarian people, for providing Hungary with secure backing.
I wish you all a successful meeting. Thank you very much for your attention.
And if you will allow me, I would like to continue the practice that I have learned from you in previous meetings. I must now give the floor to the current Chairman. The rotating chairmanship is held by the President of Kyrgyzstan, Mr. Sadyr Japarov. Mr Chairman, you have the floor.