Serbia-Hungary relations "better than ever" - FMs

Serbia-Hungary relations "better than ever" - FMs

After the talks with his Hungarian counterpart in Budapest, Dacic told a joint news conference that historic progress has been achieved in the relations between Serbia and Hungary over the past two or three years.

He underscored that overcoming open issues from the past is a result of the political will of the two countries' leaderships.

Szijjarto agreed that Serbia and Hungary never had such good relations and diverse bilateral cooperation.

Hungary's geopolitical interests in the region comprise peace, development of economic relations and progress in ensuring energy stability, he said.

Maintaining very good relations with Serbia, better than ever before, is very important for achieving the interests, Szijjarto said.

Dacic stated that the two countries' economic relations are also better than they ever were before and noted that with over EUR 1 billion in external trade, Hungary ranked sixth last year according to the scope of foreign exchange with Serbia.

He said that Belgrade and Budapest want to continue improving their relations by joint presentation on third markets as well.

Szijjarto said that Hungary would open a representative office of the Chamber of Commerce and Exim Bank in Belgrade with a view to ensuring development of small and mid-size companies.

He also recalled that an agreement on reconstruction of the railway section from Belgrade to Budapest was achieved in Belgrade in December, while the two sides should complete feasibility studies by April 15 and China should present its financial proposition so that the works could begin by the end of the year.

Dacic said that Szijjarto and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban informed him that Budapest is very interested in the railway that would connect Szeged with Baja via Subotica.

This is a new idea, but it is certainly acceptable for Belgrade, he said.

Dacic noted that Serbia wants the border with Hungary to be open for passage of passengers, goods and capital but closed for illegal migration, crime and human trafficking, which is why he discussed opening of new border crossings with Szijjarto.

One of the topics of the talks covered the issue of energy security after the cancellation of the South Stream pipeline construction.

We stand by our previous agreements and we believe that we should solve the issue of gas supply together, Dacic said.

Szijjarto noted that after the release in which the EU qualified the South Stream pipeline as unacceptable, some other projects should be backed which would ensure energy in the countries in the region. We are interested in finding a way to bring gas deliveries to Serbia and Hungary via Turkey that should have originally arrived through the South Stream pipeline, he said and added that he discussed this matter with officials in Ankara, Belgrade and Skopje and that he would conduct talks on the subject with the authorities in Athens as well.

Dacic previously conferred with Prime Minister Orban on the most important topics in international relations, including the crisis in Ukraine.