President Stevo Pendarovski welcomed today with the highest state and military honors the President of Hungary, Katalin Novak, who is paying an official visit to the Republic of North Macedonia.
As part of the visit, besides the tete-a-tete meeting, a plenary meeting of the official delegations of North Macedonia and Hungary was held, after which Presidents Pendarovski and Novak held a joint press conference.
Distinguished President Novak,
Respected representatives of the media,
Today I have the honor and pleasure of hosting the President of Hungary, whose visit takes place after almost 20 years since the last official visit of a Hungarian President to our country.
I believe that this visit, which takes place during several global crises, is significant for the development of the bilateral relations from two aspects: first, it will provide an additional stimulus for the advancement of our cooperation in several areas of mutual interest, and, on the other hand, it is a confirmation of the ongoing partnership between the two countries. The political dialogue at the highest level speaks of mutual respect and understanding, as befits two European countries.
At our second meeting in the past three months, we had a sincere and constructive discussion with President Novak in which we confirmed our common commitment to close cooperation in the Euro-Atlantic family as credible partners in NATO, and hopefully, in the near future, as equal members of the European Union.
Undeniably, Hungary is one of the loudest and most active members of the European Union in supporting the enlargement process with the Western Balkan countries and a country that played a significant role in the decision for opening the accession negotiations with North Macedonia. At the meeting, I was assured that this support will continue from Hungary, which considers enlargement as one of the most important strategic policies of the EU, and that it will continue to promote Macedonian integration with political and advisory support.
President Novak, I would like to take this opportunity to express my great gratitude for your continued support and to express our expectation that in the coming period, from Hungary, but also from the other member states of the Union, we will witness an even more dynamic approach and proactivity towards the policy of enlargement of the European Union.
At the meeting, we exchanged opinions and information about the security situation on the continent and the challenges in that regard, in the context of the war in Ukraine and its consequences. We are grateful for Hungary’s support for the Macedonian chairmanship of the OSCE this year, a year in which we all face serious political and security challenges.
We also talked about regional cooperation as an important segment in the European integration, where we pointed out the successful model of the countries of the Visegrad Group, whose experience can be a useful example for the countries of the Western Balkans.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
We have dynamic economic cooperation with Hungary, which is on the rise. Hungary is among our ten largest trading partners with a trade exchange for the last year of almost half a billion EUR and a continuous trend of surplus on the Macedonian side. With the Hungarian President, we expressed satisfaction and expectation that this trend will continue in the future, and the meeting also discussed the economic and energy crisis and the possibilities for our economies to achieve even better cooperation in the future.
In conclusion, I would like to thank Hungary for its support in the educational sphere with the Stipendium Hungaricum program, through which, for the past 10 years, 20 scholarships have been awarded annually for our young people to study at prestigious higher education institutions in Hungary. I take this opportunity to single out the successful implementation of the exchange of lecturers in Hungarian and Macedonian language, which has been taking place on a reciprocal basis since the distant 1988, when the Macedonian language department was opened in Budapest.
To my pleasure, President Novak and I will talk this afternoon with representatives of the Association of Medical Students who established HealthHub within the MladiHub office, as well as representatives of the National Youth Council.
Esteemed President Novak,
Once again I welcome you here and wish you and your delegation a pleasant stay in the Republic of North Macedonia.
Thank you.
