President Iohannis pays official visit to Hungary on Wednesday

President Klaus Iohannis will pay a visit to Hungary on Wednesday, at the invitation of Hungarian President Katalin Novak, the Presidential Administration announces. It is the first official visit to Budapest by a Romanian president in the last 14 years.

“The visit takes place in the context of increased dynamics of high-level contacts, after the official visit made by President Katalin Novak to Bucharest, in September 2022, and the participation in the 8th Summit of the Three Seas Initiative, hosted by the President Romanians in September 2023”, according to a press release sent by the Presidential Administration.

“It is the first head of state visit to Budapest in the last 14 years and represents an opportunity to discuss, at this level, the status of the Strategic Partnership relationship and its development prospects, as well as concrete ways to deepen the bilateral dialogue”, the quoted source also states.

President Klaus Iohannis will show, in Budapest, that the Strategic Partnership between the two countries “represents a fundamental instrument, aimed at structuring bilateral cooperation on new, modern, pragmatic bases and mutual respect, for the benefit of all Romanian and Hungarian citizens, regardless of ethnicity”.

Iohannis will reiterate Romania’s interest and openness for “a constructive, pragmatic and transparent cooperation with Hungary”, “in order to develop projects of common interest and obtain concrete results, based on and in the spirit of the principles and values ​​included in the fundamental documents that define the parameters of the bilateral relationship”.

The two presidents will analyze the current situation at the regional, European and global level, through the lens of the war launched by Russia against Ukraine, with an emphasis on security, energy, food and distribution chain implications.

In this context, support measures for the most affected partners in the region, especially the Republic of Moldova, will be addressed. Regarding the European agenda, the priorities of the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, which Hungary will hold in the second part of 2024, will be discussed.