PM Orban Explains Why He Travels to Turkiye + Video

Following his visits to Washington and Moscow, Hungary's Prime Minister has traveled to Turkiye to hold economic and political negotiations. PM Orban gave an exclusive interview to a reporter of the Patriota YouTube channel en route.

Orbán Viktor magyar miniszterelnök és Recep Tayyip Erdogan török ​​elnök Fotó: Fischer Zoltán Forrás: MTI/Miniszterelnöki Kommunikációs Főosztály

"As members of the European Union and NATO, we have a clear system of continuous communication: NATO summits, EU summits, meetings of ministers. There is a well-established diplomatic framework. But Russia is not a member of NATO or the EU, and the Turks are not EU either, so we had to establish a different operational structure with them. And in both cases we are doing the same thing. This means that, for example, with the Turks we hold once a year what in diplomatic language is called a high-level strategic council meeting, which essentially corresponds to a joint government session. Once a year we come together—one year in Turkiye, the next in in Hungary—and we review everything from internal affairs to environmental protection or education. And then for one day it is all about Turkish–Hungarian relations: we assign the tasks, then work for a year, meet again, and move forward. And for me it is especially good, because on these occasions I always have the opportunity to hold long, substantive discussions with the President of Turkiye," Viktor Orban told Daniel Bohar while en route to Turkiye. 

Viktor Orban and Recep Tayyip Erdogan
(Photo: MTI/Prime Minister’s General Department of Communication/Zoltan Fischer)

Turkiye is a regional power, and it will soon be a country of one hundred million people. Anyone who visits Istanbul can see that it has also become one of the great centers of the Muslim world, and it is a major power with major influence globally and for us Europeans as well. It is a rare opportunity to spend several hours together reviewing thoroughly—as friends—the European and Eurasian situation. I will use this meeting for that as well,

the Prime Minister emphasized.

PM Orban Will Discuss Several Major Topics with the Turkish President

"There are four major topics with the Turks. The first is economy and trade, the second is migration, the third is the war, and the fourth is energy. When we introduced these annual meetings during our administration, at the first meeting we agreed with President Erdogan that the then 2–2.5 billion euro trade volume would be doubled, and we set the target of 5 billion euros in bilateral trade," the Prime Minister said, stressing:

Now we are between four and a half and five. We are progressing well, but of course the Turks said: 'all right, now let us make it six.' But the important thing is still to reach five. So it works. The trade volume has increased, Turkish companies have appeared in the Hungarian economy, and Hungarian presence has expanded in the Turkish economy.

Migration Will Also Be a Key Topic

Viktor Orban explained: "We have known this for a long time  but in the meantime we have forgotten it, because we got used to the fact that we successfully protected Hungary against migration pressure. But this was only possible with the help of the Turks, and we tend to forget this. People should understand that if Turkiye were not an ally of Hungary, and if the Europeans did not maintain agreements with Turkiye, the migration pressure on Hungary would again be enormous. In this year alone, the Turks have held up 100,000 migrants, and Turkiye currently hosts 3 million migrants whom they did not allow to move onward."

 PM Orban added:

If the Turks let these people go—toward Europe and therefore toward Hungary—we would be scratching our heads, facing tremendous trouble, just as at the beginning of the migration crisis. Hungary can remain a migration-free country only if there is strong cooperation with Turkiye. Perhaps we could manage even without it, but certainly it is far easier and far cheaper to remain a migration-free, immigrant-free Hungary when there is Turkish–Hungarian friendship and cooperation.

 

Protecting TurkStream Is Essential

"Energy was not such a major issue three or four years ago, but because of the war it has become extremely important, because gas can reach Hungary only through TurkStream. Over the past decades we expanded it, enlarged it, built various elements. We interconnected the system, and suddenly it turned out that there is a massive pipeline network, called TurkStream, through which we can bring cheaper Russian gas to Hungary," PM Orban said, adding: 

This will remain true only as long as the Turks guarantee the functioning of this pipeline system. They have the will, but more is needed: they must invest money to ensure the safety of the pipeline so that we do not end up like with Nord Stream, which someone simply blew up. The Turks are ensuring that what happened to Nord Stream—an act of state terrorism in reality—does not happen again, and that our adversaries, Hungary’s adversaries, cannot damage the system that supplies cheaper Russian gas for Hungarian households and businesses, ensuring lower utility costs.

 "The Turks Are Like Us. They Know They Can Only Lose Out On the War."

The Turks have been involved in every attempt at negotiating peace. In the past four years they have been the only ones who managed, though only partially but still managed to conclude an important agreement: to move Ukrainian grain out of Ukraine and deliver it to Africa, and so on. The Turks are like us. They know perfectly well that they can only lose out on the war. Therefore, Hungary and Turkiye frequently cooperate behind the scenes in efforts toward peace. We will likely discuss this in substantive detail now as well,

the Hungarian Prime Minister emphasized.

Cover photo: Orbán Viktor and Recep Tayyip Erdogan (Photo: AFP)