Menu
I, too, extend a warm welcome to you – and, with great respect, to President Aliyev in Budapest. Today we welcome an old friend of Hungary. The Hungarians say that friendship reveals itself in difficult times. And in the past decade, decade and a half, almost two decades, whatever difficulties Hungary has had – be they related to foreign policy, financial matters or energy – Azerbaijan has always been a country we could count on, and we have always been able to count on President Aliyev. All of us here in Hungary know this, Mr. President, and we are grateful to you for it.
We are here together because now, for the first time in the history of the Organization of Turkic States, its summit is taking place in Hungary. We are not full members of this body, and this is the first time that an observer member has been able to host a summit. What raises the stakes for our current deliberations, however, is not that, but the international situation. This is what everyone can see in international politics: storm after storm, everything in motion and changing, with negotiations, wars, ceasefires and peace proposals. So everyone senses that we are living in an era of threats, with global security being tested by challenges. And in such times it is important for friendly countries to meet and review not only bilateral relations, but also the international situation.
Hungary has been living next door to a war for three years. I have told the President that we have suffered heavy economic losses: in recent years the Hungarian economy has lost over 20 billion euros because of the war and the sanctions. You all know that when the war broke out, the European Union had a choice between isolating the war and expanding the war – and it chose the latter: in essence, when faced with peace or war, it took the side of war. This has caused us serious harm. Moreover, the European economy is in a difficult situation, because the war and the sanctions have combined to shatter the strategic foundations of what had been a successful process of European economic growth. The combination of internationally competitive energy and world-class technology: that was the essence of the European economy. That has now disappeared, and nothing has replaced it; so today the ship of the European economy must be steered without the aid of a compass. The consequence of this – and I have spoken to the President about this – is that we are living through a continuous energy crisis. We pay three to four times more for gas and electricity in Europe than in America, or even China; and this makes it impossible to build a competitive economy. And I have told the President that so far we have managed to ensure that, as we are a landlocked country, we can operate our energy relations with Russia. We successfully fought for a dispensation – in response to which the Ukrainians shut down the Ukrainian pipeline system. And then we agreed with our Turkish friends that we could arrange for Hungary to be supplied from the south. I have to say that without our Turkish friends, today it would be impossible to have reduced energy bills in Hungary, and without our Turkish friends it would be impossible to secure Hungary’s energy supply. Right now there is a proposal on the table to abolish this form of cooperation, but we will try to keep it alive. We will face long and difficult discussions in Brussels. And, Ladies and Gentlemen, from this it follows that this situation will make reliable partners more valuable. I repeat that without the Turkic countries, energy supplies in Hungary would not be secure today; and without the Turkic countries, families would be paying two to three times more for energy than they are now. Last year the first shipment of natural gas arrived from Azerbaijan. President Aliyev has assured us that this will be the case again this year. In fact, we have agreed – and the President has promised – that Azerbaijan will be able to supply us with gas in the quantities that we need. Mr. President, we greatly appreciate that you have made it possible for MVM and MOL to buy stakes in oil and gas fields and pipelines in Azerbaijan, so that annually we have control over hundreds of millions of cubic metres of natural gas and hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil on the international energy market. Perhaps the significance of this is not as obvious to our Azeri friends as it is to us, because they have plenty of it and we have little. And if you do not have an energy source, you have to get it from somewhere, you have to partner with someone, you have to cooperate with someone, you have to find partners. And so we have become partners in the Azeri oil and gas fields, where – I repeat – Hungary has thus acquired a stake. We are an energy-poor country. The significance of this is extremely important not only economically, but also for our security, and perhaps also from a mental point of view; thanks to this friendship, we feel less vulnerable than earlier. We have now also agreed to extend our cooperation to a new area: that of renewable energy.
And in addition to economic matters, where we of course touched on a number of Hungarian investments that are now taking place in Azerbaijan, we also touched on the most important economic issue. This is called peace; because today peace is not only a military issue, but also the most important economic issue. We have always agreed that there is no solution to this war on the battlefield, but only at the negotiating table, and that negotiation is the only possible way to achieve international peace – not only with regard to the Russo–Ukrainian war, but also with regard to other conflicts. I would also like to congratulate President Aliyev on the fact that he has finalised the text of the Azerbaijani–Armenian peace agreement, which is a good example of how to bring a war to an end through diplomacy. I very much hope that the peace agreement will be signed as soon as possible. This is important for us, too – every small success, every success in this turbulent international world, is also extremely important for Hungary.
Mr. President, once again, we are grateful for your visit.
