Szijjártó: Hungary will vote against Kosovo's admission into European organizations

Serbian Foreign Minister Ivica Dačić visited Hungary on Tuesday. Dačić arrived in Budapest at the invitation of Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó, and was received by Viktor Orbán at the former Carmelite Monastery, after which Szijjártó and Dačić held a joint press conference, state news agency MTI reports.

In response to a journalist's question on the Serbian-Kosovar conflict, Péter Szijjártó said that Hungary is interested in a peaceful solution and a compromise through dialogue, which is why it has previously assumed the command of NATO's peacekeeping operation in Kosovo (KFOR). He added that in his opinion, the success of the search for a compromise could be jeopardised if various European organizations were to admit Kosovo prematurely, and that the Hungarian government will vote against Kosovo's admission to the Council of Europe.

The Hungarian Foreign Minister also said that as the Turkish Stream is the only gas pipeline on the continent currently operating at 100 percent capacity in the east-west direction, the "guarantee of Hungary's energy security" now lies in Serbia. He stressed that last year, 4.8 billion cubic meters of natural gas entered Hungary via Serbia, which is close to half of the total domestic consumption, while 438 million cubic meters were transported in the other direction. Trade between the two countries reached a record high last year, increasing by 75 percent.

He said that Hungary was ready to undertake new investments in infrastructure to ensure the security of crude oil supply to Serbia, adding that the parties would double the capacity of electricity interconnectivity between the two countries in the next five years.