Minister Szijjártó said he had talked to Alexander Schallenberg, his Austrian counterpart, who had indicated that Hungary’s expelling people smugglers was problematic for his country.
Defense Minister Kristóf Szalay-Bobrovniczky said Hungary and Austria are “good neighbors” and are in agreement about not sending weapons to Ukraine.
Regarding migration, President Novák said Hungary was on the same page as Austria and that accepting and helping refugees was a humanitarian task.
The president announced that she would pay an official visit to each county in the next few years.
The prime minister said the first sign of a wartime situation would be when “they declare an energy emergency in Brussels; when access to some commodities must be restricted.”
The foreign minister said the European Union clearly faces security challenges on several fronts, adding that “coping with them one at a time would be complicated enough, let alone simultaneously.”
“In easy times, friendship is easy; when times are hard, friendship is harder,” the prime minister said.
Péter Szijjártó said the Hungarian authorities have apprehended over 120,000 illegal migrants on the country’s southern border so far this year.
They discussed bilateral parliamentary ties, economic cooperation between the two countries, joint efforts to stem illegal migration, issues around demography, the energy crisis, and the future of the EU.
Minister Szijjártó noted that Austria is the second major trading partner of and the third major foreign investor in Hungary.
László Kövér asked his Austrian counterpart to help create the conditions for Austria and Hungary to sign an agreement on the mutual recognition of each other’s COVID immunity certificates.
During a meeting on the Austrian side of the border, Péter Szijjártó, Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade, said the two countries were working together closely to tackle the pandemic.
President János Áder has paid a visit to Vienna today at the invitation of Alexander Van der Bellen, his Austrian counterpart.