Hungary, Serbia vow to bolster ties amid rising geopolitical challenges

Budapest, Nov 15 (IANS) Hungary and Serbia pledged to deepen their strategic cooperation in energy, infrastructure, and economic development amid regional security concerns and rising energy costs.

Following the second meeting of the Hungarian-Serbian Strategic Cooperation Council in Budapest, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban highlighted new joint projects to enhance the two countries' energy security, including investments in oil, gas pipelines, and power transmission, Xinhua news agency reported.

"An agreement was reached to modernise the Roszke-Horgos border crossing in south border of Hungary with Serbia," Orban added.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic echoed Orban's sentiments, stressing the strength of the alliance. "Serbia will always be Hungary's ally, just as Hungary will always stand by Serbia."

He noted that the two nations have signed seven new agreements, raising the total number of bilateral accords to 180. "Our political, economic, and people-to-people relations have never been stronger," he stated.

Commenting on the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict, Vucic stressed the need for peace. "If there is no peace, then there is no economy, no development, no progress in any social sphere... Both Hungary and Serbia have successfully stayed out of the conflict," he said.

Zoltan Kovacs, Hungarian Secretary of State for Internal Communication, also said a major border project at Roszke, developed in cooperation with Serbia and China, aims to reduce long wait times and ease cross-border trade, which has grown 4.5 times in value over the past decade, now reaching 5 billion euros ($5.6 billion).

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