Mr Prime Minister, ladies and gentlemen,
Today we had very substantive and constructive talks as part
of the Prime Minister’s working visit.
We discussed topical issues on the bilateral and international agendas
and outlined long-term cooperation plans.
I would like to stress that Hungary is Russia’s important
and reliable partner in Europe.
We are interested in further expanding Russian-Hungarian
relations in all areas.
This primarily concerns developing mutually beneficial
trade and economic links.
Last year, bilateral trade increased by 25 percent to exceed $5 billion.
Over January to July of this year, trade indicators continued to grow,
also at a high rate of 30 percent.
The total amount of mutual capital investment reached $1 billion.
We are conducting large investment projects,
expanding cooperation in industrial production,
the financial sector and high technology.
I would like to note that Russian companies have upgraded trains
for the Budapest Metro and, in cooperation with Hungarian companies,
plan to supply railway cars to third markets.
I am talking about quite significant contracts.
At the same time, a wide range of medical products are produced
in Russia under a Hungarian brand, including innovative medicines.
Established with Hungarian capital,
OTP Bank is a major financial and lending institution in Russia.
It has more than 200 offices that serve almost four million customers.
Energy is an important area of bilateral cooperation.
Russia provides Hungary with over 75 percent of its oil
and 60 percent of its gas.
Russian natural gas goes to Europe through Hungary.
Underground storage tanks on Hungarian territory make it possible
to reliably supply European customers without fail even
during peak demand.
Opportunities for including our Hungarian partners in new routes
of Russian gas transit to Europe are being considered.
I do not rule out that after the Turkish Stream is built,
one of the land branches of this gas main could pass through Hungary.
Hungarian corporations take part in the exploration of hydrocarbon
resources on Russian territory.
For instance, MOL – we talked about this with the Prime Minister –
is developing an oil field in Orenburg Region,
producing up to 500,000 tonnes of oil a year.
There are good opportunities for Russian-Hungarian cooperation
in the nuclear power industry.
Rosatom will soon start building two new units at the Paks
nuclear power plant.
Incidentally, this power plant generates 40 percent
of Hungary’s electricity. This is a serious figure.
Building additional capacity will double the electricity output
and meet the requirements of the Hungarian economy for years to come.
We maintain strong ties between local regions.
At our initiative with Mr Orban,
an intergovernmental commission on regional cooperation is
being established. It will hold its first meeting before
the end of the year.
We continue developing our humanitarian relations.
In September, we endorsed a bilateral programme
of cooperation in culture for 2018–2020.
We are working on an intergovernmental agreement
on the reciprocal recognition of education,
qualifications and scientific degrees.
When discussing international issues we spoke about
Russian-EU cooperation.
Of course, we exchanged views on the situation in Ukraine.
We told Mr Orban about the latest developments in the Syrian
settlement, emphasizing the importance of Syria’s
socio-economic recovery.
In general, the talks were held in a businesslike and constructive
atmosphere and were very useful.
I would like to thank the Prime Minister and all of our
Hungarian colleagues for our work today.
Thank you for your attention.
Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, Mr President.
This is our first official meeting since the election in Russia,
so I personally, and on behalf of Hungary,
would like to convey our best wishes to the President
of the Russian Federation.
We wish him success in his work for the benefit of Russia
and the Russian people.
In recent years, we have become reliable partners for each other.
I would like to thank Mr President for making this point as well.
I can tell you that all of the agreements that we have concluded
in recent years have been implemented.
Reliability is a very important currency in modern world politics,
therefore we highly appreciate our relations with Russia.
And although we belong to different military alliances,
we are interested in maximising our joint success.
Hungary has multiple interests.
We have learned lessons from history over the past 100 years.
When there was tension between Western and Eastern Europe,
things were always bad for the Hungarians.
And when the West and the East cooperated,
things were good for Hungary.
So Hungary is interested in the best possible cooperation
between these two parts of the world.
Mr President mentioned the main issues we discussed during today's
talks, but I would like to add that there is one peculiar area of our
cooperation as both our countries belong to a Christian culture.
We attach great importance to preserving and strengthening
the Christian culture in the modern world, and to that end,
we do what we can; we try to support Christians who are in danger.
On behalf of Hungary, I can say that Hungarians have always appreciated
the cultural achievements of other nations.
We are certainly proud of our own achievements,
but Russia enjoys enormous prestige in our country in that regard.
That is why I am thankful to Mr President for bolstering our contacts
in the area of cultural ties.
The fact that an operetta was shown on the stage of the Bolshoi Theatre
a few days ago and that audiences could see the work of Imre Kalman is
an honour for Hungary, for which we are very grateful to you.
As for economic cooperation in agriculture, energy, and pharmacology –
things are going well.
We would like to extend it to other areas,
to establish cooperation in cancer research –
to conduct joint research and training.
There are wonderful opportunities opening up for this.
As for energy issues, we have reached an agreement on gas
supplies for 2020 as well.
As Mr President said, it is no secret that Hungary wants the gas
pipeline that is going to be built from the south towards Hungary
to further cross the country.
That would open excellent opportunities for Hungary.
I asked Mr President to seriously consider this possibility.
Investment into Paks is doing well –
we made the necessary adjustments when we had to.
I consider financial cooperation very important.
Mr President has already mentioned OTP bank.
I would like to add that the Hungarian bank employs 5,000 people in Russia.
We will take one more step because I have asked Mr President to expand our financial cooperation.
Being the third largest shareholder in the International Investment Bank,
Hungary is ready to house the headquarters,
to move it to Budapest.
I ask Mr President to convey to the bank management that
they should consider this.
I would like to inform the Hungarians that I suggested to Mr President
that we launch a new flight between Budapest and Kazan.
Mutual recognition of diplomas of academic degrees is an important
issue. This means that we are not only establishing cooperation
for the moment, but investing in the younger generation and planning
to maintain long-term, respectful and reliable cooperation between our
countries, which will benefit Hungary and eventually Europe.
Thank you for your attention.
Good afternoon. I would like to ask President Putin: what do you think
about the immigration crisis in Europe? Do you think the number
of immigrants will remain the same or continue to grow? Thank you.
You know, it is not easy for me to comment on issues that
do not affect us directly.
We have our own issues, our own problems concerning
foreigners in the Russian Federation.
To a certain extent, this issue is no easier for us than for Europe,
but we have no borders with the immigrants’ countries of origin.
But our problems have their own challenges even though, as a rule,
these are people from former Soviet republics –
meaning that often, they can speak Russian,
understand the basics of our culture and more easily adapt to Russia.
But this is still not a simple process and there are some
issues, including in the labor market.
Regarding Europe, the situation is more complicated in this
respect, I think. People with completely different cultural traditions
are coming to the European countries.
Adaptation is a very difficult process.
These are problems that must be solved within the European
Union, not in Russia.
Based on the current circumstances,
the inflow of immigrants is not likely to decrease.
First, there were immigrants from Syria,
Iraq and other Middle East countries.
Now there are also newcomers from ‘black’ Africa.
This number is constantly growing,
the situation changes only geographically and then
the inflow increases again.
Overall, it is clear that immigration to Europe is potentially massive,
and it is all about politics.
If immigration is encouraged with high benefits and other support,
why would the inflow stop? I do not quite understand that.
But, again, our European colleagues need to decide themselves what is
better for Europe and its development.
Mr Orban, a question for you.
The Paks nuclear power plant – a major bilateral project –
has been mentioned here, with 2020 as the completion date.
Given the pressure from the EU, the sanctions,
will this deadline be moved?
Mr President, I cannot help mentioning today's Il-20 tragedy.
Will this complicate our relations with Israel? One cannot help
recalling the recent incident with Turkey.
What kind of response measures can be expected from Russia? Thank you.
There is a lot of talk about the Paks investment project,
and this is understandable, although for us, Hungarians,
it is mostly important insofar as even now,
Paks produces 35–40 percent of the electricity.
Our long-term plans rely on nuclear energy,
which should cover our country’s needs in the long run,
along with solar energy.
However, the recent interest in it is warranted by something else –
by the fact that we are building it with Russia.
When we signed this agreement, Hungary had been a member
of the European Union for many years.
And we were talking about a project we were going to start from
scratch, a project that an EU member – Hungary –
intended to develop with Russia.
Nobody has done this before.
Older projects like the first Paks units were built much earlier,
and they are still operational.
But starting a whole new project when we are NATO members and Russia is
not, when we are EU members and Russia is not,
is different. However, we have good technological cooperation because
we developed the first units together,
and we say that we can do this with Russia.
That was a bold decision, I should say,
not only from the energy perspective,
but also in terms of cooperation between East and West.
The project certainly raises a variety of technical issues –
licenses, permits, regulations, and EU bureaucratic practices, that is,
there are a variety of difficulties. There will be more.
We will try to keep to the schedule, but this is secondary.
I believe that this project, which is a flagship of cooperation between
East and West, must be carried out to the end. We will do it.
This will be our common success and will not only benefit
Hungarian-Russian relations, but will also modernise the energy
infrastructure of the European Union.
This is why there is so much interest,
and this is why there are so many opponents and so many supporters.
I would like to join the Prime Minister in this respect.
This is really a natural choice because part of this power plant was
built with Russian technology and it is operational.
Specialists understand it, and for them it is natural
to continue cooperating with us.
True, I would like to note that this is not the only example
of cooperation with an EU country in nuclear energy.
We are carrying out a similar project with Finland.
Therefore, we continue to cooperate with the EU although
competition there is high.
Now I would like to say a few words about the tragedy you mentioned.
When people die, especially in such unfortunate circumstances,
it is always a tragedy, a tragedy for all of us,
for the nation and for the families of our people who lost their lives.
First of all, I would like to express condolences
to the families of the dead.
As for your comparison with the downing of our plane by a Turkish
fighter, this was a different situation.
The Turkish fighter deliberately shot down our aircraft.
In this case, it is more a chain of tragic circumstances because
an Israeli fighter did not down our aircraft.
It goes without saying that we must get to the bottom of this.
Our attitude towards this tragedy is set forth in a statement by our
Defence Ministry, and has been fully coordinated with me.
As for reciprocal action, this will be primarily aimed at ensuring
additional security for our military and our facilities
in the Syrian Arab Republic. These steps will be seen by everyone.