The meeting of the two ministers was focused on migration, energy security and cooperation projects, Szíjjártó told Hungarian news agency MTI afterwards.
“We must bring help where the problems are, meaning that we have to have development projects in the source countries of migration to prevent further migration waves,” he said. Both ministers found it unacceptable that Austria has reinstated controls on its borders with Hungary and Slovenia.
“This Austrian measure lacks both legal and factual foundation,” Szíjjártó said, adding that legally it is incompatible with the Schengen agreement while on the other hand both Slovenia and Hungary commit significant resources to defending their borders. Hungary, for example, has spent one billion euros on it over the past three years.
Regarding cooperation in energy supply, the two countries will speed up the construction of a gas pipeline connecting them and by 2023 Slovenia will complete its LNG (liquefied natural gas) terminal in Krk and by 2021 the high-voltage power line linking the countries will also be finished.
Szíjjártó said the Hungarian Air Force will continue to patrol Slovenian air space, a task it had been sharing with Italy for the past four years. Slovenia does not have the air capabilities to police its airspace in accordance with NATO standards, nor does it plan to develop such capabilities.
Title image: Hungarian Foreign Minister Péter Szíjjártó and Alojz Kovsca, the President of the Slovenian Parliament’s upper house meet in Ljubljana MTI/Mitko Sztojcsev
