Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok emphasized: the Visegrad Cooperation has been buried by many and many times, but it has once again proven that it is necessary.
The most important feature of the Visegrád group (V4) is that its members can always sit at the negotiating table, Polish President Andrzej Duda declared on Monday in Wisla, southern Poland, at the summit meeting of the presidents of the group of countries.
At the joint press conference following the meeting held at the presidential residence of the Wisla mountain resort, Duda answered a journalist's question about the future of cooperation in Visegrád: the V4 is a group of neighboring states.
"We don't always have to share a common point of view on every issue, but the most important thing is that we can always (...) sit at the negotiating table and discuss important issues," he said.
As an example, he recalled the common position of the V4 rejecting EU migration quotas, which in recent years, as Duda underlined, has determined the migration policy of the European Union.
Monday's meeting was also of "model value" in this regard: on the one hand, they discussed global issues, the war in Ukraine, and on the other hand, regional cooperation, the Polish president said.
In the first part of the negotiations, concerning security policy and Ukraine, the V4 presidents agreed that " the post-war situation and the cessation of Russian aggression must be discussed with the participation of the attacked state ," Duda reported.
He also announced: in the agenda item intended for regional cooperation, the possibilities of mutual disaster prevention support were discussed in connection with the summer floods. The Polish president proposed the creation of an expert group on this topic.
Hungarian President Tamás Sulyok emphasized: the Visegrad Cooperation has been buried by many and many times, but it has once again proven that it is necessary.
The head of state said that Central Europe is facing serious challenges, but the dialogue between the V4 states is effective. A war has been raging in the neighborhood for more than a thousand days, but you can trust that the guns will fall silent next year.
Looking further afield, dangers can also be seen, everything must be done, for example, to ensure that the conflict in the Middle East does not widen, and that no country in the region can be taken over by an extremist group and ideology, said the head of state, adding that the security of religious minorities, their communities special attention must be paid to respecting his rights.
Hungary still considers it important to protect the Christians living there and continues to provide them with humanitarian aid, he said.
According to Tamás Sulyok, in this situation, it is a rare opportunity for Central Europe to be able to direct the work of the Council of the European Union for a whole year, since after the end of the Hungarian presidency, Poland will take over the task of serious responsibility. According to the head of state, it is a source of pride that Hungary has achieved a number of significant policy results during its EU presidency.
He called it of great importance for the future of the entire community that the informal meeting of the European Council accepted the Budapest declaration on the new competitiveness agreement, and the member states recently agreed on the guidelines for the common agricultural policy after 2027, which can lay the foundation for a crisis-resistant, sustainable, knowledge-based, farmer-friendly agriculture.
In the current geopolitical situation, the fact that, under Hungarian control, a declaration on the fight against anti-Semitism was also adopted is of particular importance.
Hungary also supported the full accession of Bulgaria and Romania to the Schengen zone, so the control at the land borders may also be abolished in the spring. Tamás Sulyok hopes that an agreement on the EU's next enlargement tasks will be reached within days. Slovakian President Peter Pellegrini called it gratifying that "a pragmatic position is beginning to emerge" in the V4 on the war in Ukraine.
" We all feel that the (warring) parties should be brought to the negotiating table as quickly as possible, " he said. More and more people " are becoming aware that the only solution to this military conflict is peace ," he added. He judged that peace in Ukraine cannot be achieved by military means.
According to Pellegrini, security cooperation is the common denominator of the V4, independent of the political affiliation of the governing forces.
He also considered regional cooperation in the field of energy security, the modernization of national armies and the fight against illegal immigration to be important.
Czech President Petr Pavel reported that the participants of the meeting agreed that "increasing pressure" can be expected from the future US President Donald Trump to "take greater responsibility for ourselves". This will not only require greater defense expenditures from the countries of the region, but also more decisive steps in the field of Europe's global competitiveness, he stated.
Linda Kapustová Helbichová, executive director of the Visegrád Fund, also participated in the negotiations. For Andrzej Duda, this was the last V4 meeting he attended as head of state. His second presidential term will end in August next year, and he cannot be re-elected a third time. From July 1st this year to June 30th, 2025, Poland holds the consecutive presidency of the V4.
MTI
Front page photo: Polish President Andrzej Duda at the international conference called Krynica Forum in Krynica-Zdrój in southeastern Poland on September 19, 2024.
MTI/EPA-PAP/Lukas Gagulski
