Szijjarto: Hungary to continue to support accelerated EU integration of Serbia

BELGRADE - Hungary will continue to provide full support to Serbia to accelerate its EU integration process, Hungarian Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto said after a meeting with Serbian counterpart Marko Djuric in Belgrade on Thursday.

The governments of Hungary and Serbia attach strategic importance to development of bilateral relations, Szijjarto said.

He added that Hungary was watching developments in Serbia and that it saw attempts to destabilise the country.

"I want to say completely clearly that stability and peace in Serbia are in the interest of us Hungarians. We highly appreciate and value the efforts of the president and the Government of Serbia, efforts that are also important for development of Hungarian-Serbian relations," Szijjarto said at a press conference with Djuric.

He said development of bilateral relations was very important as a new world order and a new global political reality were emerging, and added that this was "good news".

"It is good news because that new political reality is emerging thanks to the new US president, who is conducting a patriotic policy and going against the ideology that was in place until now - the one of the US administration interfering in the internal affairs of other countries," he said.

Donald Trump has started a war against the international liberal mainstream, he said.

"However, we see that attacks against national patriotic governments are still on the agenda, but they are no longer being run from both Brussels and Washington, but only from Brussels," Szijjarto said.

It is clear that Europe is in a difficult situation, that the level of the EU's competitiveness is very low and that the EU needs a new drive in this situation, he said.

"We believe we can get that new drive from the Western Balkan region, and Serbia has the leading role in that region," Szijjarto said.

"We believe that it is shameful that the Brussels institutions and some European countries are still blocking the process of Serbia's integration," he noted.

Szijjarto added that some European leaders had thwarted the opening of Cluster 3 (Economic Growth and Competitiveness) in Serbia's EU accession talks.