Visiting Slovak Prime Minister Peter Pellegrini (L) shakes hands with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban during a joint press conference after their meeting in Budapest, Hungary, June 12, 2018. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Slovakia's counterpart Peter Pellegrini praised the Italian government for refusing to allow the migrant ship Aquarius to dock in Italy, at a joint press conference here on Tuesday. (Xinhua/Attila Volgyi)
BUDAPEST, June 12 (Xinhua) -- Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and his Slovakia's counterpart Peter Pellegrini praised the Italian government for refusing to allow the migrant ship Aquarius to dock in Italy, at a joint press conference here on Tuesday.
On Monday, some 629 people were stranded in the Mediterranean aboard the Aquarius, according to the UNHCR. Italy had refused to allow the migrant ship to enter any of its ports in its southern regions.
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez later allowed the ship to dock in Spain.
This was the first time Italian Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte's recently installed government -- formed on a coalition of far-right League and anti-establishment Five Star Movement -- decided to turn away migrants and refugees saved during the Mediterranean crossing.
Asked about the Italian refusal to let the ship dock in Italy, Orban said: "The willpower to defend maritime borders has returned in Italy, which could lead to a change in the European migration policy," adding that the government in Rome had Hungary's full support.
Also on the issue of migration, Orban commented on a recent declaration by German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the fact that the Hungarian border fence protected Germany as well.
"We respect the will of the Germans to let in several hundreds of thousands of migrants in their country. We only ask the same in return, that they respect our decision not to invite the migrants," Orban underlined.
"If we stay tolerant towards one another, I believe that we will stay in strategic partnership," he added, stressing that he was hopeful that German-Hungarian relations would remain on the grounds of common sense.
Slovakia takes the helm of the rotating presidency of the Visegrad Group (Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia) in July. Pellegrini declared that migration would be a key topic of its presidency.
"I want to emphasize that we must stop the policy of saving all the people who throw themselves into the water: the coast guards or the police save them and suddenly they are sent to the territory of the EU. We have to place them in hot spots outside EU territory," Pellegrini said.
"The Italian response was just the beginning: the EU's external borders must be strengthened," he added.
"We refuse to bring migrants into our countries: we reserve the right to choose with whom we want to live or not, and it is out of the question to pay a quota per capita in case of refusal. On the other hand, we can and will help in the defense of the borders with the sending of soldiers or of the police," he said.
"Orban's position is very clear on migration, but it also completely reflects the position of the other leaders of the Visegrad countries and 90 percent of the population of these countries. For this reason our point of view will not change," he concluded.
The two leaders praised the good relations between their two countries and the common projects of the Visegrad Group, such as the building of a high-speed trade between the Polish and the Hungarian capital via the Slovakian capital, and the construction of new motorways and bridges.
