Turkish PM in Budapest
February 26th, 2015A pro-government commentator accuses the left-wing opposition of serving foreign interests by criticising the government’s efforts to enhance relations with Turkey. Hungary has to promote cooperation with East and West alike, he suggests.
In Magyar Hírlap, Gyula T. Máté argues that it is vital for Hungary to get access to Russian natural gas through channels other than the pipelines crossing Ukraine. At his press conference in Budapest, Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu of Turkey promised that in its negotiations with Moscow on a new gas pipeline, Turkey will take Hungary’s interests into account. Máté believes that Ukraine is too unstable for Hungary to depend exclusively on the trans-Ukrainian pipelines for the energy supply of its households and factories. Opposition politicians who accuse the Prime Minister of siding with illiberal regimes, he continues, should also accuse Germany’s governing Christian Democrats and Social Democrats who have already built a direct gas pipeline to Russia. Hungary doesn’t have to choose either the West or the East, he concludes – it has to follow its own interests.