On Monday, Hungary donated protective medical equipment to North Macedonia to support the Western Balkan country in tackling the novel coronavirus pandemic more effectively, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto announced in Skopje.

Hungary is contributing to North Macedonia s anti-pandemic efforts with 100,000 facemasks and 5,000 protective suits. Hungary s foreign minister highlighted that Budapest is also able to help other countries as it had bought a mask production line from China. The mass production of medical masks is set to start soon, Mr Szijjarto noted, adding that there s continuous air traffic between Chinese cities and the Hungarian capital Budapest, with airplanes carrying protective gear to Hungary.

„We, Hungarians, pursue a responsible neighbourhood policy. We have provided similar help to Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia, and now to North Macedonia,” Peter Szijjarto said. „If these countries lose strength both literally and figuratively, then their capacity to protect themselves will also become weaker, and – in case of a new surge in illegal migration, which is quite likely – they won t be able to resist and stop the migration pressure. We, Hungarians, have a vested interest in pushing the effective line of defence against migratory pressures to as far south as possible.” he said.

Mr Szijjarto also congratulated North Macedonia for becoming a full NATO member last week and for receiving approval to commence accession talks with the European Union. „We consider this to be a great North Macedonian and Hungarian success, because the EU has a Hungarian enlargement commissioner. That, which has failed for so many years has finally come… although we believe the talks should ve started much sooner.”

Budapest has called on the European Commission to „prepare the negotiation framework by May the latest, and to start accession talks no later than June,” Mr Szijjarto said. „We live here, in the vicinity, so we know how important it is to have peace and stability in the Western Balkans, and these decisions will help us achieve that goal,” the Hungarian foreign minister stressed.