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SARAJEVO, July 6 (FENA) - The Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade of the Republic of Hungary Peter Szijjarto visited Bosnia and Herzegovina and presented a donation of over 200,000 doses of vaccines to the population in BiH as a token of mutual friendship between the two countries.
In an interview with FENA, Szijjarto said that Hungary is very much aware that the only solution to get out of the pandemic, protect people's health and lives is the vaccination and they never made it an ideological or geopolitical issue, but looked at it as it is, and that is the need to save lives.
"The COVAX mechanism has failed, and the European Union has not lived up to expectations when it comes to the help we hoped for from them. However, since we made strategic decisions at the beginning, 65 percent of the population in Hungary has been vaccinated through the procurement of Chinese and Russian vaccines," he added.
Therefore, as of this weekend, all restrictive measures introduced to prevent the spread of coronavirus in Hungary have been lifted, and the country is now in a situation to help others, and today they donated 200,000 doses of Sinopharm vaccine to Bosnia and Herzegovina.
"Based on the friendship between the two countries and the strong interdependence in which we live, it was very clear that we would help BiH immediately. According to official data and research, Sinopharm is an effective and safe vaccine. State scientists have researched it very thoroughly and we have very positive experiences," said the Hungarian Foreign Minister.
He reiterated that the more successful Bosnia and Herzegovina is when it comes to vaccination the better it will be for everyone since we live in interdependence, people travel from one country to another and in order to reduce the risk of infection to the lowest possible level, this is the best way to do it.
Hungary is one of the few EU member states that has decided to vaccinate its population with vaccines that have not yet been approved in the European Union, but the minister believes that Brussels' biggest mistake in this process was the fact that they viewed the issue from an ideological and geopolitical point of view.
"It was very clear to us that we have to vaccinate as many people as possible, thus having a chance to save more people, and that is why we asked our experts to go to Russia and China and to have assurance in the quality of production," the Minister emphasized.
They visited vaccine production sites, consulted with manufacturers and studied thousands of pages of documentation, and after this very thorough procedure, the experts approved the use of both Sputnik and Sinopharm vaccines in Hungary.
"This means that we did not enter an unknown area but made these clear decisions based on professional assessments. We know that the most important thing with vaccines is whether they are safe and effective, which has been confirmed by our experts, and the question arises why we would not buy them and offer them to the citizens," said Szijjarto.
He also notes that they would have vaccinated much fewer people, in a much slower manner, which would have caused more deaths if they had waited for the approval of the European Union.
Therefore, this was a logical decision by the Hungarian authorities especially since the World Health Organization (WHO) approved Sinopharm vaccines.
In an interview with FENA, Hungarian Foreign and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto also commented on the issue of EU enlargement and the possibility of BiH gaining the expected candidate status for the EU membership by the end of this year, saying that if Hungary were to decide, it would certainly happen because BiH deserved that status.
"But when it comes to decision-making in Brussels, I am, unfortunately, less optimistic that it will happen. Yet, there are three things that provide a dose of optimism, and one of them is the introduction of a new methodology for the enlargement process. It is a political process and it should not be stopped by bureaucracy and technical matters, which was the case before," Szijjarto explained.
As another positive thing, he mentioned the fact that Hungary took over the chairmanship of the Visegrad Group on July 1, which is strongly in favor of enlargement and will now put the issue on the table again.
Also, Slovenia took over the presidency of the Council of the European Union on July 1, which, says Minister Szijjarto, is a country that understands the situation in BiH much better than other countries do that have previously held the EU presidency because it is a neighboring country and its officials are committed to enlargement of the Union.
"Slovenia understands the importance of this region being integrated into the European Union. These three things can provide some hope when it comes to obtaining a candidate status for Bosnia and Herzegovina," said the Hungarian Foreign Minister.
The Minister points out that it is clear that the countries of the Western Balkans have had some hesitations when it comes to progress towards EU membership, and it is necessary to take into account the fact that the Hungarian approach to EU enlargement is not shared by the majority of other countries but we have to continue working on it.
Speaking about the bilateral relations between the two countries in terms of economy, Minister Szijjarto emphasized that BiH and Hungary are only 70 kilometers away, which is why it is clear that the relations between the two countries must be improved and developed.
He noted that connectivity is one of the crucial things to work on, and the company Wizz Air recently started operating from the Banja Luka Airport, which is the third airport after Tuzla and Sarajevo from which this company operates in BiH.
When it comes to energy, cooperation is being prepared in terms of the modernization of thermal power plants in BiH and the installation of a cooling system, which is a Hungarian patent.
Also, the Embassy of Hungary in BiH is a contact point for NATO, which is why that country is available to BiH to the extent that BiH wants it to be.
Hungarian Foreign and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto concluded the interview with FENA by noting that a EUR 85 million credit line has recently been launched, intended exclusively for connecting businesses between the two countries, and called on businesses to take advantage of these latest opportunities.
(FENA) S. R.
