Hungary underscores joint efforts with Türkiye to promote peace in Ukraine

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Monday pointed to the joint efforts with Türkiye to promote peace in Ukraine and bring an end to the war.

"The Turks have been involved in all attempts at reconciliation and, together with the Hungarians, they know that they can only lose in the war, so the two countries often work together to promote peace," Orban told reporters on board the plane to Istanbul, according to Hungary Today news portal.

Reaffirming that they hold a high-level meeting every year, Orban stressed that the four main points of the current negotiations are economy and trade, migration, war and energy.

Describing Türkiye as a "regional power," he said meetings allow them to discuss the situation in Europe and Eurasia with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan "as friends."

Orban said regular meetings had helped push bilateral trade from €2-2.5 billion ( $2.33-2.91 billion) to €4.5-5 billion ($5.24-5.83 billion), with Turkish investment in Hungary rising and Hungarian presence in Türkiye also expanding.

He noted that over the past four years, Türkiye has been the only country that sealed several key agreements, including delivering Ukrainian grain to Africa.