GODOLLO, Hungary: The leaders of four Central European countries signaled the revival of their regional alliance on Tuesday as they met in Hungary to repair relations that had fractured over the pro-Russian stance of former Hungarian leader Viktor Orb\u00e1n.<\/p>\n
The prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia were meeting for the first summit of the Visegr\u00e1d Four regional group in more than two years after Orb\u00e1n\u2019s approach to the war in Ukraine caused fault lines among the informal bloc\u2019s other members, particularly Poland.<\/p>\n
Hosting Tuesday\u2019s summit at the Grassalkovich Castle in G\u00f6d\u00f6ll\u0151, a suburb of Budapest, was Hungarian Prime Minister P\u00e9ter Magyar, who since succeeding Orb\u00e1n in May has spoken repeatedly about the importance of breathing new life into the group.<\/p>\n
Magyar said at a news conference following a one-hour meeting with his counterparts that he had proposed developing a high-speed rail line linking the four countries\u2019 capitals, and that the prime ministers had also discussed finding common ground on energy security, agricultural policy and illegal immigration.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe V4 is back,\u201d Magyar said. \u201cThe heart of Europe is beating in Central Europe today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Magyar, whose center-right Tisza party gained a two-thirds majority in parliament in Hungary\u2019s April 12 election, has pledged to bring an end to his predecessor\u2019s obstructionist approach in the European Union, and to base his foreign policy on constructive mutual cooperation while defending Hungary\u2019s interests.<\/p>\n
On Tuesday, he emphasized that he\u2019d like to expand V4 cooperation to include other countries, and to make \u201ca Visegr\u00e1d Four that is strong and which has a credible voice in European decision-making.\u201d<\/p>\n
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk echoed Magyar\u2019s sentiment that the V4 countries should coordinate before meetings of the European Council to bring common positions to the table, saying the group can be a \u201cbeacon of hope\u201d that forms a united front to help dictate policies at the EU level.<\/p>\n
Magyar\u2019s election marked a shift in Hungary\u2019s Ukraine policy. Within weeks of taking office, his government had reached an agreement with Kyiv on restoring a raft of rights for a Hungarian ethnic minority in western Ukraine, and in turn lifted Hungary\u2019s veto in the EU for starting the embattled country\u2019s membership process.<\/p>\n
The prime ministers of the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Andrej Babis and Robert Fico, are both Orb\u00e1n allies and, following the former prime minister\u2019s lead, have reduced or cut weapons and financial aid to Ukraine for its defense against Russia\u2019s full-scale invasion.<\/p>\n
Yet Babis on Tuesday took an optimistic tone toward renewed V4 cooperation, saying the group is \u201conce again fully operational.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThese four countries are the future of Europe,\u201d Babis said.<\/p>\n
Hungary currently holds the rotating presidency of the V4 but will hand over the role to Slovakia at the end of the month.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
GODOLLO, Hungary: The leaders of four Central European countries signaled the revival of their regional alliance on Tuesday as they met in Hungary to repair relations that had fractured over the pro-Russian stance of former Hungarian leader Viktor Orb\u00e1n. The prime ministers of the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia were meeting for the first …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":99504,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-99491","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99491","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99491"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99491\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":99505,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99491\/revisions\/99505"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99491"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99491"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99491"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}