?Visiting Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic (L) and her Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban attend a press conference in Budapest, Hungary, on Feb. 9, 2018. The ties between Hungary and Serbia are so strong that the friendship between the two countries will soon become a strategic partnership, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Friday. (Xinhua/Szilard Voros)
BUDAPEST, Feb. 9 (Xinhua) -- The ties between Hungary and Serbia are so strong that the friendship between the two countries will soon become a strategic partnership, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Friday.
"Today, two proud and independent countries are working together, signing several agreements from different fields, and this friendship is soon to become a strategic partnership," Orban told a press conference also attended by visiting Serbian Prime Minister Ana Brnabic.
Hungary and Serbia, Orban said, needed to defend their borders together, in order to warrant for the security of their citizens, as well as their own cultural heritage.
Orban also thanked the Serbian Prime Minister for helping to contain the migration flow at Hungary's southern border and reiterated that Hungary, if needed, would provide assistance to Serbia in the defense of its southern borders.
Orban, speaking on behalf of the Visegrad countries (Poland, Hungary, Czech Republic and Slovakia), as Hungary is assuming the turning presidency, also repeated that the Visegrad group was for the steadfast integration of Serbia into the European Union.
The EU is preparing to pledge a 2025 deadline for the next wave of enlargement, but Balkan disputes are likely to hold things back.
According to the EU specialist journal EUobserver, "The Western Balkans partners now have a historic window of opportunity. For the first time, their accession perspective has a best-case timeframe." This is what the European Commission is to say in a strategy paper to be adopted in mid-February.
"With strong political will, the delivery of real reforms, and lasting solutions to disputes with neighbors, Montenegro and Serbia should be ready for membership by 2025," according to a European Commission draft seen by EUobserver.
"Serbia looks to Hungary as a friend and would love if the Hungarian presence in Serbia would not be restricted to Vojvodina," Brnabic told the journalists. Vojvodina is the northern part of Serbia, home to a substantial Hungarian minority.
Orban ensured Brnabic that he heard the message, and Hungarian bank OTP was planning to further invest in all of Serbia.
Brnabic said her country was grateful for the support Hungary provided for Serbia's European integration.
